j-NRLF 


B    M    107    122 


0, 


5 


BAKED  ME  ATS  I 


OF  THE 

FUNERAL. 


COLLECTION    OF 

ASSAYS,  POEMS, 
es,  gistories, 

AND 

BANQUETS. 


BY  PRIVATE  MILES   O'REILLY, 

Late  of  the  47th  Reg't,  New  York  Volunteer 
Infantry,  10th  Army  Corps. 


w  *  *  <S> 


COLLECTED,    REVISED,    AND   EDITED,   WITH   THE    REQUISITE  CORRECTIONS  Of 

PUNCTUATION,  SPELLING,  AND  GRAMMAR.      BY  A.N  EX-COLONEL  OF 

THK  ADJUTANT-GENF.RAL'S  DEPARTMENT,  WITH  WHOM 

THE  PRIVATE  FORMERLY  SERVED  AS  LANCE 

CORPORAL  OF  ORDERLIES. 


NEW   YORK: 
Carle ton,  Publisher,  413  Broadway 


M  DCCC  LXVI. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1866,  by 
CHARLES  G.  HALPINE, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  Slates  for  the 
Southern  District  of  New  York. 


THK   NKW  YORK   PRINTING   Co., 

81,  83,  and  85  Centre  Street. 


PS 


9* 

CHARLES  C.  YEATON 

of  Brooklyn, 


M36254 


PREFACE. 


"  8C§e  funeral  fcafuto  meats 
BtU  cofolD  furittefj  fortfj  tfje  fa«trtiutjj  fcuafcfaBt." 

O  such  a  very  in 
discriminate  col 
lection  of  fugitive 
essays,  and  songs 
not  quite  so  fugi 
tive,  hastily  select 
ed  from  the  hasty  scribblings  of  a 
year,  and  as  hastily  pitchforked  to 
gether  in  the  double  hurry  and  heat 
of  travelling  and  journalism,  what 
form  of  introduction  can  be  requi 
site  ?  The  very  decided  popular 
success  of  a  similar  volume  published  last  year,  and 
now  in  its  ninth  or  tenth  edition,  is  the  best  apology 
that  can  be  offered  for  the  appearance  of  this,  its  suc 
cessor.  It  may  also  be  urged  that  the  various  parts  of 
which  it  is  composed,  met  with  very  distinct  and  gene 
ral  acceptance  at  the  tune  of  their  original  appearance  ; 
and  that,  as  mementoes  of  how  public  opinion  was 
formed  and  ran  during  the  closing  stages  of  the  war, 


VI  PREFACE. 

and  in  regard  to  various  topics  of  great  interest  not 
directly  connected  therewith,  such  as  Fenianism,  the 
Monroe  Doctrine,  Louis  Napoleon's  character,  and  so- 
forth,  these  fugitive  essays  and  verses  have  been  thought 
by  many  to  deserve  some  more  permanent  form  of 
life. 

Everything  in  the  subjoined  volume,  no  matter  how 
supposititiously  credited  in  the  text,  is  from  the  author's 
pen,  with  the  exception  of  two  translations  into  Latin 
of  two  of  the  author's  lyrics  of  the  war,  from  the  pen 
of  his  brother — one  of  the  most  eminent  classical 
scholars  of  Trinity  College,  Dublin ;  certain  quotations 
from  the  official  documents  of  Gens.  Hunter  and  Grant 
connected  with  the  war;  a  translation  into  German  of 
one  of  the  same  songs  by  Friedrich  Gerstiicker,  who  is 
said  to  be  a  poet  of  high  fame  and  character  in  his  own 
particular  part  of  Europe — wherever  that  may  be  ;  and 
a  translation  of  one  of  the  odes  of  Horace  from  the  pen 
of  General  John  A.  Dix. 

While  thus  claiming  the  execution  of  all  the  balance 
of  the  volume,  the  author  is  anxious  to  make  his  ac 
knowledgments  for  prolific  suggestions  and  wise  advice 
to  Mr.  James  Gordon  Bennett  of  the  Herald,  to  whose 
shrewd  common-sense,  very  peculiar  and  pungent  humor, 
and  immense  experience  of  the  world,  he  stands  indebt 
ed  for  the  origination  of  many,  and  the  encouragement 
of  all,  of  his  recent  literary  projects.  Mr.  Bennett's 
mind  is  an  electric  battery,  apparently  never  to  be 
exhausted  by  the  drafts  made  upon  it  for  fresh  ideas ; 
and  he  is  one  of  those  rare  men  whose  ordinary  conver 
sation,  in  any  half  hour  of  any  day,  can  furnish  hints 


PREFACE.  Vll 

and  ringing  key-notes  for  the  editorial  labors  of  any 
young  journalist  during  the  next  week  or  fortnight. 

The  chapter  giving  the  song  of  "  The  Flaunting  Lie," 
as  it  has  been  called,  and  the  history  thereof,  with  the 
other  songs  of  the  same  series,  will  be  read  with  inte 
rest  by  all  who  remember  how  bitterly  our  honored 
friend,  Mr.  Horace  Greeley,  was  assailed  for  his  imputed 
authorship  of  that  much  misquoted  and  garbled  lyric 
during  the  last  ten  years,  and  more  especially  during  the 
recent  Presidential  canvass.  For  evil  or  for  good,  that 
song  has  now  passed  into  history ;  and  in  connexion 
therewith  the  author  would  only  say,  that  he  was  at  all 
times  ready  to  avow  its  authorship,  but  was  restrained 
by  the  suggestion  of  Mr.  Greeley  that  in  "  politics,  a  lie 
well  stuck  to  is  as  good  as  truth ;"  and  that,  no  matter 
what  avowals  were  made  in  regard  to  the  song,  Mr. 
Greeley's  enemies  would  still  continue  to  hold  him 
responsible  therefor,  and  to  garble  and  misquote  such 
verses  of  it  as  might  seem  to  suit  their  purposes. 

The  long  chapter  on  Fenianism  is  preserved  as  a 
historical  relic  of  some  interest,  no  matter  what  may  be 
the  fate  of  that  curious  and  erratic  'movement.  It  was 
this  article — originally  published  in  the  Herald  and 
thence  copied  in  full  by  the  London  Times,  and  a  ma 
jority  of  the  leading  papers  of  Great  Britain  and 
Europe — that  first  called  any  serious  public  attention 
to  the  existence  of  such  an  Order ;  and  it  was  from  the 
notoriety  thus  given  that  the  Brotherhood  more  than 
trebled  their  numbers  in  the  six  months  next  following 
its  publication  ;  and  that  a  movement  previously  dying 
out  from  want  of  activity  and  ventilation,  became  at 


viii  PREFACE. 

once  one  of  the  actual,  if  not  avowed  elements,  more 
or  less  operative,  in  the  international  politics  of  France, 
Great  Britain,  and  the  United  States. 

For  the  rest,  the  volume  must  be  taken  as  each 
reader  will  find  it — sometimes  humorous,  sometimes 
grave,  but  always  with  an  earnest  and  wholesome  pur 
pose,  as  the  author  hopes.  There  are  in  it  some  few 
chapters  of  personal  recollections  of  the  war — only  a 
prelude  to  a  larger  and  more  careful  work  of  the  same 
character,  which  the  writer  will  endeavor  to  get  time 
for  collecting  and  writing  during  the  present  year. 
There  are  in  it,  also,  many  poems  and  songs  of  greater 
or  less  merit,  nearly  all  written  within  the  past  year, 
save  "  The  Union  Convoy  "  and  the  series  of  "  The 
Flaunting  Lie ;"  and  of  these,  as  well,  with  the  best 
or  least  bad  of  his  other  songs  previously  published  in 
book-form  and  in  the  newspapers  and  magazines,  it  is 
the  author's  hope  to  have  a  handsomely  illustrated 
volume  made  up  for  next  Christmas. 


THE  AUTHOR. 


Office  N.  Y.  Citizen^ 
NEW  YORK,  January  20th,  : 


THE    UNION    CONYOY. 

[January  1st,  I860.] 

THE  night  is  dark  and  bodeful  as  through  the  gloom  we  sail, 
And  the  ground-swell  of  the  moaning  sea  gives  warning  of 

the  gale ; 

The  nearest  vessels  of  the  fleet  our  eyes  can  scarce  discern, 
Though  by  their  creaking  cordage  that  some  are  near  we 

learn. 

Ho !  Signal-master,  leap  aloft,  and  from  the  topmost  spar, 
"  The  Convoy  is  in  danger  " — flash  the  signal  fast  and  far! 
Let  us  know  what  vessels  answer  to  the  old  and  honored 

sign, 
Count  the  signals  reappearing  in  the  Convoy's  ordered  line ; 

We  have  sailed  the  seas  together, 
Linked  in  many  a  common  fight, 

And  accursed  be  all  the  omens 
That  say  we  part  to-night ! 

Bright  was  the  glorious  morning  which  saw  the  Convoy 

start, 
Freighted  with  all  that  human  hope  makes  precious  to  the 

heart ; 

Bright  were  our  days  of  summer,  while  still  as  riches  grew, 
Another  vessel  joined  us,  and  we  hailed  another  crew; 
A  smiling  heaven  above  us,  an  open  path  to  steer, 
New  treasures  ever  dawning  in  the  isles  we  drew  anear — 


4:  THE    UNION   CONVOY. 

0;  peaceful  v?-d&  the  ioyage,  or  when  we  met  a  foe, 
All  ^struck,  to.  guard  the  .common  rights  with  one  avenging 
•  blow,:  : 

But  Signal-master,  hasten, 

Flash  the  words  in  rays  of  light — 
"  What  vessels  of  the  Convoy 
Part  company  to-night  ?  " 

Great  admirals  have  led  us,  great  names  our  records  bear 
Of  those  who  shaped  our  destinies,  and  taught  us  how  to 

dare ; 

Great  captains  we  have  numbered — each  name  itself  a  star, 
Bright  as  those  answering  signals  which  flash  from  spar  to 

spar! 
Through  many  a  tempest  Washington  has  paced  the  heaving 

deck, 

And  after  many  a  battle-hour  his  orders  cleared  the  wreck ; — 
Yea,  oft  beneath  our  gliding  keels  the  mountain  waves 

have  swelled, 

While  Jackson's  hand  with  iron  grip  the  foremost  tiller 
held. 

But  now  we  have  no  Captain 

In  this  dark  and  bodeful  night, 
Yet — Heaven  be  praised !  how  quickly 
The  signals  leap  to  light. 

Let  us  only  keep  together  and  in  vain  the  waves  may  swell, 

We  shall  flash  the  joyous  signal  to  the  Convoy — "  All  is 
well ! " 

Though  the  skies  be  black  with  tempest  and  the  seas  run 
high  and  fast, 

While  the  whistling  gale  allows  no  sail  to  bend  the  groan 
ing  mast, 


THE   UNION  CONVOY.  5 

Yet — so  the  Q-ood  Gods  whisper — while  the  skies  their 

influence  pour, 

A.  common  path  the  fleet  shall  steer,  a  common  flag  adore ; 
If  mutineers  would  seize  our  ships,  they  shall  dangle  from 

the  spars, 

And  from  every  topmast  yet  shall  stream  the  banner  of  the 
stars! 

No  cloud  while  we  together  sail, 

Their  radiance  can  eclipse ; 
For  the  Convoy  knows  no  danger 
But  collision  of  the  ships ! 


HONOR  TO  OUK  HEKOES. 

GRAND    BANQUET  IN  HONOR  OF   GENS.   SHERMAN 
AND  THOMAS. 

[From  the  New  York  Herald,  Jan.  1st,  1865.] 
DINNER  OF  THE  NEW  YORK  NATIONAL   CLUB. 

AT  the  entertainment  given  last  evening  at  the 
Maison  Doree,  by  the  members  of  the  New  York 
National  Club,  to  celebrate  the  successes  of  Gene 
rals  Sherman  and  Thomas,  there  was  quite  a  select 
and  brilliant  gathering  of  military  and  other  cele 
brities.  All  the  arrangements  for  the  feast  were 
of  the  choicest,  and  the  company  seemed  to  be  in 
excellent  spirits  for  appreciating  the  entertain 
ment,  both  intellectual  and  physical,  to  which  they 
were  invited.  The  walls,  pictures,  and  chandeliers 
were  beautifully  decorated  with  wreaths,  stars,  and 
crosses  of  evergreens  and  flowers :  and  there  were 
other  indications  on  the  tables  that  Christmas  and 
the  holiday  season  had  not  been  forgotten. 

SOME  OF  THE  DISTINGUISHED  GUESTS. 

Prominent  among  the  military  guests  we  noticed 
General  Robert  Anderson,  Major-General  John 


HONOR  TO  OUR  HEROES.  7 

A.  Dix,  and  two  members  of  his  staff;  together 
with  Generals  W.  S.  Hancock,  Hunter,  Hooker, 
W.  F.  Smith,  Hartsuff,  Butterfield,  Averell,  Cul- 
lum,  Webb,  Colonel  James  A.  Hardie,  Inspector- 
General,  and  several  minor  lights  of  the  profession 
militaire.  Of  civilians  and  naval  officers  there  was 
a  choice  but  not  inconvenient  number  present, 
covers  having  been  ordered  only  for  sixty, 
and  this  limit  being  adhered  to,  despite  a  very 
strong  outside  pressure  to  have  the  margin 
extended. 

Among  those  in  the  non-military  class  we  noticed 
Messrs.  Thurlow  Weed,  John  Van  Buren,  Gover 
nor  Andrew,  of  Massachusetts ;  Captains  Drayton 
and  Daniel  Ammen,  United  States  Navy ;  Wm.  F. 
Havemeyer,  James  T.  Brady,  Senator  Conness,  of 
California;  John  A.  Kennedy,  Judge  Ingraham, 
Charles  A.  Dana,  Assistant  Secretary  of  War; 
Eoyal  Phelps,  the  Kev.  Morgan  Dix,  Robert  B. 
Roosevelt,  Edwards  Pierrepont,  Richard  O'Gorman, 
Sydney  H.  Gay,  Captain  Worden,  United  States 
Navy;  Edward  Cooper,  Hamilton  Fish,  William 
Stuart,  Thomas  J.  Durant,  A.  T.  Stewart,  Thos. 
C.  Acton,  Captain  Rodgers,  United  States  Navy ; 
Clarence  Seward,  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  Professor 
Doremus,  Henry  Hilton,  Samuel  L.  M.  Barlow, 
Charles  Ndrdhoff,  Henry  J.  Raymond,  Colonel 
Sandford,  of  the  telegraph  companies;  Edwin 
Booth;  Yice-President  elect,  Andrew  Johnson,  of 


8  HONOR  TO  OUR  HEROES. 

Tennessee;   and  Captain  G.  Y.  Scott,  Assistant 
Secretary  of  the  Navy. 

OBJECT  OF  THE   DINNER  CELEBRATION. 

The  cards  of  invitation  from  the  New  York 
National  Club  set  forth  that  this  dinner  was  to 
celebrate  the  successful  termination  of  the  first 
problem  of  General  W.  T.  Sherman's  last  and 
greatest  campaign,  by  the  capture  of  Savannah ;  and 
the  overwhelming  destruction  of  the  rebel  forces 
under  General  Hood  by  General  Geo.  IT.  Thomas ; 
as  also  to  express  the  hope  of  all  true  patriots, 
irrespective  of  party,  that,  "through  the  trium 
phant  energy  of  our  military  and  naval  heroes, 
this  desolating  civil  war  may  soon  be  brought 
into  a  condition  that  will  allow  a  liberal  margin 
to  statesmanship  and  diplomacy  for  the  settlement 
of  all  differences  between  the  North  and  South  on 
the  one  essential  basis  of  a  restored  Union." 

OPENING  SPEECH    BY  PRINCE    JOHN  VAN  BUREN 
— THE  HEALTH  OF  GENERAL  SHERMAN. 

After  full  justice  had  been  done  to  the  viands 
— Dodworth's  band  discoursing  eloquent  music 
during  the  progress  of  the  feast — the  distinguished 
Prince  John  Yan  Buren,  as  President  of  the 
Club,  gave  notice  that  there  would  be  no  succes 
sion  of  "regular  toasts"  that  evening,  this  habit 


HONOR   TO  OUR  HEROES.  9 

having  become  a  mere  form,  which  had  lost  all 
significance,  and  only  tending  to  bore  convivial 
assemblages  with  too  copious  streams  of  eloquence 
elaborately  rehearsed.  They  had  met  to  acknow 
ledge  their  indebtedness  to  two  noble  Generals, 
and  to  express  hopes  for  their  continued  success. 
He  would  therefore,  now  propose,  in  due  order  of 
seniority,  the  health  of  that  gallant  officer,  General 
William  Tecumseh  Sherman,  and  call  upon  the 
honored  friend  on  his  left — General  Kobert  Ander 
son,  of  Fort  Sumter— to  respond  in  behalf  of  the 
absent  hero.  (Loud  applause,  the  whole  company 
rising  and  drinking  the  health  of  General  Sherman 
with  "  three  times  three  and  a  tiger,"  Dod worth's 
band  striking  up,  "  Lo,  the  Conquering  Hero 
Comes,"  and  "Hail  Columbia.") 

General  Anderson,  whose  rising  was  hailed  with 
fervent  demonstrations  of  applause,  spoke  slowly, 
and  as  if  still  suffering  from  the  effects  of  pro 
tracted  illness ;  but  he  spoke  with  an  unrivalled 
tenderness  of  sincerity,  his  plea  for  the  foundation 
of  a  Soldier's  Home,  towards  the  close  of  his 
remarks,  having  in  all  its  words,  accents,  and  ges 
tures,  a  most  cogent  impressiveness. 

GENERAL  ANDERSON'S  SPEECH. 

General  Anderson  declared  it  to  be  the  proudest 
thought  of  his  life  that  he  had  been  the  humble 
means,  under  Divine  Providence,  of  bringing  into 
1* 


10  HONOR  TO  OUR  HEROES. 

early  prominence  before  the  country  the  two 
generals  whose  names  were  at  the  present  moment 
most  gratefully  on  the  lips  of  every  patriot — he 
referred  to  his  old  lieutenant,  Wm.  T.  Sherman, 
whose  health  they  had  just  honored ;  and  to  that 
noblest  of  all  noble  Southrons  now  in  the  active 
service  of  our  country,  General  George  H.  Thomas, 
of  Virginia.  (Applause.)  Early  in  the  war,  when 
assigned  to  the  command  of  his  own  native  State, 
Kentucky,  General  Anderson  felt  that  his  nervous 
system  had  been  injured  by  the  enormous  weight 
of  anxieties  and  responsibilities  which  had  pressed 
upon  him  for  the  two  months  preceding  the  attack 
upon  his  forces  in  Fort  Sumter.  He  was  only  over 
ruled  into  accepting  the  command  by  the  represen 
tations  of  such  noble  patriots  of  his  native  State  as 
the  late  .,ohn  J.  Crittenden,  Mr.  Leslie  Coombs, 
Secretary  Guthrie,  and  others  of  like  stamp,  who 
expressed  to  him  their  belief  that  his  name  might 
be  made  useful  in  heightening  the  loyalty  of  those 
Kentuckians  who  were  already  for  the  Union,  and 
of  turning  into  the  true  path  many  who  were  still 
wavering  or  in  doubt.  (Loud  applause.)  Thus 
pressed,  he  accepted ;  but,  fearing  that  his  health 
might  again  break  down,  it  was  the  primary  con 
dition  of  his  taking  the  command  in  question,  that 
his  tried  and  honored  friend,  General  William  T. 
Sherman,  should  be  assigned  to  him  as  his  next 
in  rank.  (Applause.)  Sherman  had  served  for 


HONOR  TO  OUR  HEROES.  11 

years  under  him  as  lieutenant  of  his  company ; 
and  General  George  H.  Thomas,  he  was  proud  to 
say,  had  been  a  lieutenant  in  the  same  regiment. 
In  regard  to  General  Thomas,  he  desired  to 
claim  some  credit,  but  only  for  having  expedited 
the  inevitable.  Men  of  the  stamp  of  George  H. 
Thomas  push  themselves  upward  and  onward  in 
times  like  these  as  irresistibly  as  water  seeks  its 
own  level ;  or,  to  use  a  metaphor  more  appropri 
ate  to  a  certain  alleged  portion  of  the  aristocracy 
of  to-day,  as  inevitably  as  a  great  petroleum  foun 
tain  underneath  the  earth,  will  bubble  to  the  sur 
face  and  make  all  rich  around  it.  (Loud  applause 
and  laughter.)  But  it  was  through  his  humble 
ministry  that  Greneral  Thomas,  early  in  the  war, 
received  an  opportunity  worthy  of  his  talents ; 
and  the  manner  of  this  incident  he  would  now 
relate.  He  (General  Anderson)  saw  with  pain  in 
the  early  days  of  the  war,  a  disposition  on  the 
part  of  certain  prominent  friends  of  the  Adminis 
tration  to  look  with  suspicion  upon  officers  of 
Southern  birth,  who  still  remained  faithful  to  the 
old  flag.  From  the  South  himself,  he  felt  this 
keenly ;  and  at  an  early  interview  with  the  Presi 
dent,  having  stated  his  views,  he  asked  that  he 
might  be  given  a  brigadier's  commission  for  George 
H.  Thomas — (applause) — an  officer  for  whose  un 
alterable  loyalty  he  would  answer  with  his  head ; 
and  whose  natural  and  acquired  qualities  of  sol- 


12  HONOR  TO  OUR  HEROES. 

diership  he  esteemed,  after  long  opportunities  for 
judging,  as  second  to  those  of  no  officer  in  our 
own  or  any  other  army.  (Loud  applause,  in  the 
midst  of  which  General  Butterfield  proposed  "The 
health  of  General  Thomas,"  which  was  drunk 
with  enthusiasm,  and  with  all  the  honors.)  Gene 
ral  Anderson  then  regretted  that  the  condition 
of  his  health  would  not  allow  him  to  review  the 
splendid  career  of  General  Sherman — a  task  which 
he  found  himself  obliged  to  delegate  to  younger, 
and  more  active  heads.  He  knew  Sherman  well, 
and  loved  him  with  all  his  heart ;  and  would  only 
express  the  hope,  before  resuming  his  seat,  that 
the  great  and  generous  American  people,  filled 
with  thanks  to  the  Giver  of  all  Goodness  for  the 
victories  which  had  recently  blessed  our  arms, 
would  now  make  their  gratitude  take  the  practical 
form  of  erecting  a  great  "National  Soldiers' Home'7 
for  our  crippled  and  disabled  veterans,  as  the 
noblest  and  most  appropriate  monument  they  could 
erect  in  commemoration  of  the  Divine  mercies  for 
which  we  have  all,  this  day,  so  much  cause  to  be 
thankful.  (Applause.)  The  General  then  recited 
the  labors  he  had  undergone  in  procuring  the  pre 
sent  Soldiers'  Home  at  Washington  to  be  created, 
regretting  that  it  had  been  located  upon  a  misera 
bly  contracted  patch  of  ground,  near  Washington, 
and  that  it  consequently  could  afford  no  means  of 
giving  any  healthful  and  self-supporting  employ- 


HONOR  TO   OUR  HEROES.  "  13 

ment  to  its  inmates.  He  wished  to  see  the  first 
great  National  Soldiers'  Home,  to  be  erected  by 
popular  action,  located  either  in  the  vicinity  of 
Carlisle,  Pa.,  or  near  the  beautiful  Adirondack 
region  of  New  York.  It  should  have  at  least  a 
thousand  acres  of  land  attached  to  its  endowment; 
and  with  this  properly  cultivated  by  the  easy 
labor  of  the  inmates,  and  with  the  trifling  pensions 
now  allowed  to  them  by  government,  such  an 
establishment  would  be  self-supporting,  and  need 
make  no  appeal  for  any  further  contribution.  As 
to  the  present  Soldiers'  Home  near  Washington, 
it  should  be  purchased  by  Congress  as  a  residence 
for  the  President  and  such  Cabinet  officers  as  might 
choose  to  reside  there — the  present  miserably  un 
healthy  and  contracted  White  House  becoming 
merely  the  Presidential  suite  of  public  offices. 
With  the  money  obtained  from  Congress  by  such 
a  sale,  the  land  he  wanted  for  his  new,  popular  and 
National  Soldiers'  Home  might  be  readily  pur 
chased.  In  this  connection  he  desired  to  express 
his  indebtedness  to  the  various  papers  of  New 
York,  and  to  the  New  York  Herald  more  parti 
cularly,  for  the  cordial,  generous,  and  active  sup 
port  they  had  given  to  this  project.  Himself  a 
disabled  soldier,  he  thanked  all  the  conductors  of 
our  press,  in  the  name  of  his  crippled  comrades, 
for  their  disinterested  humanity  in  this  matter. 
Thanking  the  members  of  the  Club  and  his  fellow- 


14  HONOR  TO   OUR  HEROES. 

guests  for  the  patience  with  which  they  had  heard 
him,  General  Anderson  resumed  his  seat  in  the 
midst  of  deafening  applause. 

COLONEL  M'MAHON'S  SONG — ITS  AUTHORSHIP 
STILL  IN  DOUBT. 

Lieutenant-Colonel  Martin  T.  McMahon,  late 
Adjutant-General  on  the  staff  of  the  ever-glorious 
and  lamented  Major-General  Sedgwick,  was  next 
introduced  to  the  company  by  President  Van 
Buren,  who  said  that  as  they  had  all  met  to  cele 
brate  General  Sherman's  success,  he  would  be 
glad  for  them  to  hear  from  his  friend,  the  Colonel, 
who  had  a  most  excellent  voice,  a  song  he  had 
just  received  from  Sherman's  army,  via  the  Ogee- 
chee — the  authorship  of  which  was  pretty  clearly, 
though  not  yet  quite  definitely,  traced  to  a  young 
cavalry  officer  of  distinction,  and  holding  an  im 
portant  command  in  Sherman's  army  (Loud 
applause  and  cheers).  Thus  introduced,  Colonel 
McMahon,  a  very  fine-looking  young  soldier,  and 
one  possessing  a  record  of  service  as  enviable  as 
his  voice  and  other  social  talents,  proceeded  to 
give  the  following  to  an  original  accompaniment, 
which  was  played  for  him  on  the  guitar  by  Gene 
ral  William  Averell,  of  the  cavalry,  who  proved 
himself  a  most  accomplished  master  of  that  instru 
ment — a  true  troubadour  of  the  old  Provence  type, 


HONOR  TO  OUR  HEROES.  15 

alike  familiar  with  serenade  and  sabre.    He  called 
it: 

THE  SONG  OF  SHERMAN'S  WAY. 

A  pillar  of  fire  by  night, 

A  pillar  of  smoke  by  day,   • 
Some  hours  of  march — then  a  halt  to  fight, 

And  so  we  hold  our  way. 
Chorus — Some  hours  of  march,  &c. 

Over  mountain  and  plain  and  stream, 

To  some  bright  Atlantic  bay, 
With  our  arms  aflash  in  the  morning  beam, 

We  hold  our  festal  way. 
Chorus — With  our  arms  aflash,  &c. 

There  is  terror  wherever  we  come, 
There  is  terror  and  wild  dismay, 
When  they  see  the  Old  Flag  and  hear  the  drum 

Announce  us  on  the  way. 
Chorus — When  they  see  the  Old  Flag,  &c. 

Never  unlimber  a  gun 

For  those  villainous  lines  in  gray 
Draw  sabres  !  and  at  'em  upon  the  run ! 

'Tis  thus  we  clear  our  way. 
Chorus — Draw  sabres !  and  at  'em,  &c. 

The  loyal,  who  long  have  been  dumb, 

Are  loud  in  their  cheers  to-day, 
And  the  old  men  out  on  their  crutches  come, 

To  see  us  hold  our  way. 
Chorus — And  the  old  men  out,  &c. 


16  HONOR  TO  OUR  HEROES. 

Around  us,  in  rear  and  flanks, 
Their  futile  squadrons  play  • 
With  a  sixty  mile  front  of  steady  ranks, 

We  hold  our  checkless  way. 
Chorus — With  a  sixty  mile  front,  &c. 

Hear  the  spattering  fire  that  starts 

From  the  woods  and  copses  gray  ; 
There  is  just  enough  fighting  to  quicken  our  hearts, 

As  we  frolic  along  the  way. 
Chorus — There  is  just  enough  fighting,  &c. 

Upon  different  roads  abreast 

The  heads  of  our  columns  gay, 
With  fluttering  flags,  all  forward  pressed, 
Hold  on  their  conquering  way. 
Chorus — With  fluttering  flags,  &c. 

Ah,  traitors !  who  bragged  so  bold 

In  the  sad  war's  early  day, 
Did  nothing  predict  ye  should  ever  behold 

The  Old  Flag  come  this  way  ? 
Chorus — Did  nothing  predict,  &c. 

By  Heaven  1  'tis  a  gala  march, 

'Tis  a  picnic,  or  a  play  ; 
Of  all  our  long  war  'tis  the  crowning  arch  ; 

Hip,  hip  !  for  Sherman's  way  ! 
Chorus — Of  all  our  long  war,  &c. 

The  verses,  sung  with  great  melody,  fire,  and 
feeling,  were  warmly  received ;  and  it  may  gratify 
the  friends  of  the  unknown  author  to  be  here 
informed  that,  in  response  to  a  brief  but  telling 


HONOR  TO  OUR  HEROES.  17 

and  witty  address  from  Senator  Conness,  of  Cali 
fornia,  the  health  of  the  author  of  "  Sherman's 
Way,"  received  the  complimentary  and  enthusi 
astic  baptism  of  some  of  the  best  French  and 
Rhenish  vintages  to  be  found  upon  Manhattan 
Island. 

LEARNED  AND  ELOQUENT  ADDRESS  OF  MAJOR- 
GENERAL  JOHN  A.  DIX. 

General  Dix,  being  loudly  called  for,  remarked 
that  it  was  but  rarely,  since  re-entering  the  army, 
that  he  had  found  either  time  or  inclination  for 
post-prandial  speeches.  He  was  out  of  practice, 
and  might  possibly  be  dull ;  but  he  promised  he 
should  not  be  prolix.  He  was  not  one  of  those 
who  looked  upon  war  as  an  unmixed  evil.  It 
cost  much  pain  and  waste,  but  these  were  more 
than  compensated  by  its  calling  forth  all  that  is 
heroic  in  our  natures : 

Si  tritura  absit  paleis  sunt  abdita  grana, 
Nos  crux  mundanis  separat  a  paleis, — 

or  "  for  the  benefit  of  country  members." — As  the 
precious  corn  is  separated  from  worthless  straw 
only  by  severe  threshing,  so  by  crosses  and  afflic 
tions  the  true  life  of  a  nation  is  separated  from  its 
chaff.  (Applause.)  It  required  the  dark  days  of 
a  Republic  to  bring  out  such  hero-characters  as  we 


18  HONOR  TO  OUR  HEROES. 

have  found  in  Sherman,  Thomas,  Farragut,  and 
that  youngest  but  not  least  of  the  jewels  gilding 
the  bright  crown  of  our  war — Lieutenant  Gush 
ing,  of  the  navy.  (Loud  applause.)  These  names 
are  lights  of  our  country,  emulating  in  lustre  the 
stars  under  which  they  fight,  and  capable  of  chal 
lenging — were  history  truly  written — the  demi 
gods  of  mythology  to  a  comparison  of  records  : 

jEmula  nomina  stellis, 
Nomina  quaepossent  solicitare  decs! 

General  Dix  desired  to  endorse  the  eloquent 
and  practical  appeal  of  his  honored  friend,  Gene 
ral  Anderson,  in  behalf  of  founding  a  great 
National  Soldiers'  Home  as  the  most  fitting  monu 
ment  with  which  the  American  people  can  record 
their  appreciation  of  the  services  of  Generals 
Sherman  and  Thomas,  and  their  gratitude  to  the 
Heavenly  Father  who  has  vouchsafed  so  much 
success  to  the  efforts  of  their  enterprise  and  genius. 
If  there  be  any  objects  which  should  appeal  to  the 
public  sympathy  with  irresistible  force,  it  is  such 
as  we  have  daily  presented  in  all  the  highways  and 
byways  of  our  land — crippled  soldiers  who  have 
fought  the  battles  of  their  country,  yet  are  now 
reduced  to  sit  on  stoops  and  by  the  wayside, 
exposing  their  truncated  limbs  and  honorable 
scars  while  asking  for  an  obolus.  (Emotion  and 


HONOR  TO  OUR  HEROES.  19 

applause.)  Every  time  these  sights  came  before 
him — and  they  came  too  often — he  was  reminded 
of  those  most  touching  lines  of  the  Latin  poet : 

Per  ego  has  lachrymas,  dextramque  tuam  te, 
Si  quidquam  te  merui,  fuit  aut  tibi  quidquam 
Dulce  meum  miserere  mei ! 

The  soldier  in  his  day  of  strength  is  a  noble 
object.  Satisfied  of  the  justice  of  his  cause,  and 
filled  with  the  thought  that  the  peace,  honor,  and 
well-being  of  his  country  depend  upon  his  prow 
ess,  he  is  regardless  of  death,  and  rushes  upon 
hostile  swords : 


Haud  timet  mortem,  cupit  ire  in  ipsos 
— -Obvius  enses! 


But  when  recoiling,  faint  with  loss  of  blood,  from 
the  tempestuous  onset,  holding  up  in  his  left  hand 
the  shattered  right  arm  that  never  again  may 
strike  for  the  cause  as  dear  to  him  as  life,  or  car 
ried  rearward  with  a  broken  thigh  on  one  of  those 
canvas  stretchers  already  purple  with  the  blood 
of  dozens  who  have  pressed  it  before  him — Oh, 
then,  if  there  be  hearts  in  those  at  home  to  feel 
grateful  for  self-sacrifices,  they  should  surround 
his  couch  of  pain  with  everything  that  can  miti 
gate  his  sufferings ;  and  as  he  issues,  alive  but  for 


20  HONOR  TO  OUR  HEROES. 

ever  crippled,  from  the  door  of  the  hospital,  they 
should  be  there  to  take  him  in  their  arms  and 
comfort  him  with  the  assurance  that  the  Nation  in 
whose  cause  he  has  given  the  glory  of  his  man 
hood,  will  provide  him  with  an  honorable  and 
happy  home  during  the  balance  of  his  life.  (Ap 
plause  and  deep  emotion.)  Occupied  as  our  chief 
authorities  are  in  the  main  business  of  crushing 
the  armed  forces  of  the  rebellion,  allowance  must 
be  made  for  their  neglect  or  inability  to  attend  to 
such  matters  of  after  consideration  and  detail  as 
this  of  a  Soldiers'  Home.  They  are  troubled  with 
many  things ;  nunc  hcec  nunc  ilia  cogitant'  and  they 
very  possibly  feel  that  while  all  their  energies 
are  directed  to  the  front,  the  care  of  those  who  are 
permanently  disabled  in  the  nation's  cause  should 
be  freely  and  proudly  undertaken  by  the  non-bel 
ligerent  classes  of  our  people.  (Cries  of  "  Hear, 
hear."  A  voice — "  We  accept  the  trust.") 

General  Dix  had  been  led  aside  from  his  pur 
pose  of  speaking  directly  to  the  object  which  had 
called  them  together  ;  but  if  he  knew  General 
Sherman  well,  and  he  thought  he  did  so,  that  offi 
cer  would  be  the  last  to  grudge  any  moments  taken 
from  his  own  praise  to  plead  the  cause  of  the  gal 
lant  men  who  had  been  riddled  with  balls  and 
pierced  with  bayonets  since  General  Anderson  first 
heard  the  hollow  booming  of  the  guns  which 
announced  the  birth — monstrum  horrendum,  ingens. 


HONOR  TO   OUR  HEROES.  21 

atque  informe — of  this  rebellion.  (Loud  applause, 
General  Anderson  bowing.)  It  was  a  good  thing 
to  praise  men  publicly  who  had  been  publicly 
deserving.  It  strengthened  virtue,  and  gave  it  the 
additional  stimulus  of  admiring  sympathy  : 

Laudataque  virtus 
Crescit,  et  immensuin  gloria  calcar  habet. 

Or,  again — for  the  benefit  of  members  from  the  ru 
ral  districts — applauded  virtue  grows  by  praise,  and 
glory  has  a  mighty  impulse.  (Loud  cheers.)  This 
impulse  a  generous  people  would  not  fail  to  supply 
abundantly  to  such  true  hero-hearts  as  Farragut 
and  Sherman.  (Loud  applause.)  The  one  has 
proved  that  an  iron-clad  admiral  is  superior  to  an 
iron-clad  navy,  illi  robur  et  ces  triplex — (applause  and 
laughter) — while  the  other,  like  some  new  Colos 
sus,  has  bestridden  our  continent  from  the  moun 
tain  ranges  of  Tennessee  to  the  long,  shelving 
shores  of  the  Atlantic,  the  thunderbolts  of  war  in 
his  right  hand,  and  the  olive  branch  of  peace  in 
the  other,  offering  its  shadow  and  protection  to  all 
who  would  again  swear  fealty  to  the  banner  which 
it  is  his  noble  mission  to  uphold.  (Loud  applause.) 
Before  concluding,  General  Dix  would  briefly 
refer  to  his  order  directing  our  troops  to  pursue  all 
rebel  burglars  and  cut-throats  across  the  Canadian 
frontier,  if  essential  to  their  capture.  (Shouts  of 


22  HONOR  TO   OUR  HEROES. 

applause,  the  health,  of  General  Dix  being  pro 
posed  by  a  dozen  voices,  and  receiving  all  the 
honors  as  if  by  universal  impulse.)  That  order, 
they  were  aware,  for  which  he  felt  proud  to  receive 
their  plaudits,  had  been  revoked ;  and  to  the  deci 
sion  which  revoked  it,  he,  as  a  soldier,  bowed  with 
all  due  humility.  (Peals  of  derisive  laughter, 
the  General  giving  this  last  sentence,  as  Artemus 
Ward  would  say,  "  with  intense  suckkasm.") 
But  in  his  private  capacity  he  respectfully  differed 
from  those  in  authority  over  him  as  to  the  merits 
of  the  question  when  judged  by  the  standard  of 
international  law.  (Loud  Cheers.)  "  The  right 
of  hot  pursuit,"  as  it  is  called,  or  as  Grotius  ex 
presses  it,  dumfervet  opus,  is  one  of  the  best  esta 
blished  in  the  code  of  international  obligations. 
It  was  asserted  by  General  Jackson  against  the 
Spaniards  in  regard  to  the  frontiers  of  Florida; 
and  it  remained  for  our  present  Secretary  of  State 
to  repudiate  this  great  democratic  authority  in 
regard  to  Great  Britain.  (Patriots  applaud  again, 
with  some  hisses  for  the  "  little  silver  bell.")  Gene 
ral  Dix  had  no  doubt  that  the  policy  which 
revoked  his  order  might  be  abundantly  justified 
by  considerations  of  immediate  expediency :  but, 
if  so,  the  revocation  should  have  avowed  as  its 
motive  a  mere  temporary  pressure,  rendering  the 
present  enforcement  of  the  right  impolitic,  while 
broadly  reaffirming  as  a  principle  "  the  right  of 


HONOR  TO  OUR  HEROES.  23 

hot  pursuit "  which,  had  formed  the  basis  of  his 
order.  (Ringing  applause,  and  cries  of  "  Good, 
good."  "  We  think  as  you  do."  "  Their  neutra 
lity  be  damned,"  &c.)  General  Dix  felt  that, 
though  the  order  had  been  revoked,  it  yet  had  its 
effect,  and  that  effect  a  good  one.  He  felt  that  in 
it  he  had  reared  himself  a  monument  which  should 
not  pass  away — Exegi  monumentum  cere  perennius 
— and  was  already  satisfied  that  the  American 
people  would  do  justice  to  his  motives,  and  that 
history  would  date  a  new  era  in  our,  relations  with 
England  from  the  promulgation  of  that  order,  in 
which  he  was  happy  to  add,  the  honorable  Secre 
tary  of  War  had  most  cordially  supported  him. 
(Intense  applause,  Mr.  Brady  proposing  "  Success 
to  the  Fenian  Brotherhood :  the  day  of  our  war 
with  England  enrols  every  able-bodied  true  Irish 
man,  both  here  and  in  Canada,  under  the  banner 
of  the  Union !")  General  Dix  felt  that  he  had 
detained  them  longer  than  he  had  intended,  and 
yet  had  done  but  scanty  justice  to  his  subject. 
For  his  classical  quotations  he  pleaded  the  exam 
ple  of  his  Commander-in-Chief,  the  President ;  and 
all  who  heard  him  should  believe  that  it  was  not 
the  wish  to  do  full  justice  to  his  subject  which  was 
wanting,  but  the  long  want  of  practice  in  speeches 
of  this  kind.  Non  deerat  voluntas  sed  facultas. 
(Loud  applause,  amid  which  the  General  resumed 
his  seat,  being  warmly  complimented  by  Messrs. 


24  HONOR  TO  OUR  HEROES. 

Brady,  O'Gorman,  Van  Buren,  Doremus,  Cham 
berlain,  Frederick  Hudson,  and  many  others.) 

AN  ARMY  AND  NAVY  TOAST — HEALTHS  OF  FAR- 
RAGUT  AND  THOMAS. 

The  joint  healths  of  Admiral  Farragut  and 
General  George  H.  Thomas  were  now  formally 
proposed  by  General  Hancock,  and  were  drunk 
with  all  the  honors,  the  whole  company  standing 
up,  waving  their  napkins  and  cheering  until  the 
room  rang  again,  while  the  band  played  elo 
quently 

11  Our  army  and  our  navy  for  ever, 
And  the  flag  of  the  red,  white,  and  blue  1" 

A  SONQ  FROM  GOV.  ANDREW,  OF  MASSACHUSETTS. 

Apropos  to  the  toast  they  had  just  drunk,  Mr. 
Yan  Buren  would  have  much  pleasure  in  calling 
upon  their  honored  guest,  Governor  Andrew  of 
Massachusetts,  for  a  song  or  sentiment,  earnestly 
hoping  it  might  be  the  former.  In  addition  to  a 
memory  so  stored  with  songs  and  poems,  that 
those  who  knew  him  could  only  wonder  how  he 
found  room  in  his  head  for  the  many  thousand 
other  interests  which  so  constantly  pressed  upon 
him,  and  of  which,  in  all  situations,  he  had  proved 
himself  so  complete  a  master, — their  friend,  the 


HONOR  TO  OUR  HEROES.  25 

Governor,  was  blessed  with  a  voice  of  unusual 
compass,  flexibility,  and  culture;  and  although 
aware  that  he  pould  rarely  be  tempted  to  display 
his  vocal  powers  in  public,  the  Chairman  would 
still  hope  that  the  greatness  of  this  occasion,  their 
desire  to  pay  all  possible  honor  to  the  names  that 
have  been  introduced,  and  the  semi-private  cha 
racter  of  the  entertainment,  might  induce  their  dis 
tinguished  guest  to  relax  his  usual  rule  of  silence. 
(Loud  applause,  and  vehement  urgings  followed, 
with  which  Governor  Andrew  at  last  good-na 
turedly  complied.) 

The  Governor  is  one  of  those  broad-chested, 
large-throated  men,  with  a  noble  baritone  voice ; 
and  although  he  is,  by  repeated  election,  the  special 
representative  of  a  Puritan  State,  few  of  our  most 
light-hearted  youth  could  have  given  the  following 
words  with  more  drollery  or  fire. 

"  Play,"  he  said,  sending  by  one  of  the  waiters  to 
the  bandmaster;  "  play  that  one  of  Moore's  Melo 
dies  called  'Fill  the  Bumper  Fair,'  and  I'll  try 
what  I  can  do  with  it.  Gentlemen, ':  he  added, 
addressing  the  company,  with  a  smile  of  infectious 
merriment ;  "  You  must  be  sure  you  never  let  my 
blue-light,  Old  Bay  State  constituents  know  what 
I  have  been  doing."  (Loud  cries  of  "  They  shall 
never  know  it  from  us,"  with  a  suggestion  from 
Colonel  Hardie  that  General  Dix  should  issue  an 
order  to  "  shoot  on  the  spot "  any  reporter  who 


26  HONOR  TO   OUR  HEROES. 


should  be  guilty  of  making  public  this  deeply  in 
teresting  incident.     (Loud  laughter.) 

Governor  Andrew  then  cleared  his  throat  with 
a  glass  of  Muscatelle,  and  sang  as  follows.  He 
called  it  his 


SONG  OF  THE  CHRISTMAS  HOLIDAYS. 

Fill  the  bumper  high, 

Showing,  without  shrinking, 
Patriotic  joy 

By  patriotic  drinking ! 
Sherman's  noble  host 

Well  they  keep  their  promise, 
But,  for  a  bully  toast, 

We  drink  the  health  of  Thomas  1 
Chorus — Fill  the  bumper  high,  &c. 

Bumpers  to  the  brink ! 

Scarce  can  we  determine 
Whether  we  should  drink 

To  Thomas  or  to  Sherman  ? 
We  cannot  pause  or  wait, 

'Tis  cold  and  wintry  weather, 
And  so,  to  end  debate, 

We'll  drink  'em  both  together  I 
Chorus — Fill  the  bumper  high,  &c. 

With  them  let  us  mix 

Others  you  are  wishing — 
Here's  to  those  naval  bricks, 

Farragut  and  Gushing ! 


HONOR  TO  OUR  HEROES.  27 

May  our  heroes'  choice, 

O'er  land  and  ocean  straying, 
Blend  as  does  my  voice 

With  the  music  playing ! 
Chorus — Fill  the  bumper  high,  &c. 

Fill  again — who  recks? 

Our  last  shall  be  a  thumper  ; 
To  Stanton's  beard  and  specs 

We  pledge  the  present  bumper  ! 
Quick !  the  bottles  pass ! 

Old  Time  is  slipping  from  us  ; 
Let's  pledge  a  final  glass 

To  Farragut  and  Thomas ! 
Chorus — Fill  the  bumper  high,  &c. 

A  BAY  STATE  TRIUMPH — HOW  THE  SONG  WAS  RE 
CEIVED. 

No  song  that  we  have  heard  for  many  years 
could  be  pronounced,  including  all  its  accessories, 
a  more  decided  triumph  than  this ;  all  the  com 
pany,  with  the  exception  of  the  two  reverend 
gentlemen  present,  joining  enthusiastically  in  the 
chorus,  which  was  led  by  Captain  Barstow,  A.D.C., 
and  Messrs.  Theodore  and  E.  B.  Roosevelt,  who 
have  voices  of  great  compass  and  delightful  cul 
ture.  On  its  conclusion  a  number  of  gentlemen 
pressed  round  Governor  Andrew  with  congratula 
tions  and  thanks,  prominent  among  whom  we 
noticed  Dr.  Durant,  of  the  Pacific  Railroad ;  Col. 


28  HONOR  TO   OUR  HEROES. 

Frank  E.  Howe,  of  the  New  England  Eelief 
Booms;  Colonel  Sandford,  of  the  American  Tele 
graph  ;  and  S.  L.  M.  Barlow,  Esq.,  gold  controller 
and  democratic  politician,  of  Madison  Square  and 
William  street. 

SLIGHT  ODOR  OF  COPPER — MR.  o'GORMAN  SPEAKS. 

Mr.  Eichard  O'Gorman,  being  now  called  for, 
desired  briefly  to  remark  that,  in  every  word  that 
had  fallen  from  the  gallant  and  learned  gentleman 
(bowing  to  General  Dix)  who  had  addressed  them 
just  previous  to  the  pleasure  (bowing  to  Governor 
Andrew)  they  had  just  had,  he  (Mr.  O'Gorman) 
desired  most  cordially  to  concur — (applause) — per 
haps  most  cordially  in  those  portions  of  the  Gene 
ral's  glowing  peroration  which  referred  to  the 
"right  of  hot  pursuit'1  over  British  soil;  and  to 
General  Sherman  as  holding  the  "olive  branch" 
in  one  hand,  while  wielding  a  sword  in  the  other. 
(Applause,  and  some  dissent.)  The  olive  was  a 
briny  vegetable,  which,  to-night,  they  had  all  found 
pleasant  with  their  wine  (applause  and  merriment) ; 
but  about  the  metaphorical  "olive  branch,"  to 
which  General  Dix  had  made  allusion,  no  trace  of 
bitterness,  or  "  the  salt  rheum  of  grief,"  could  be 
found.  It  was  the  healer  of  miseries ;  the  only 
fan  b}7  which  eventually  the  briny  tears  of  our 
civil  discord  could  be  dried  away.  There  was  a 


HONOR  TO   OUR  HEROES.  29 

time  for  the  sword  and  a  time  for  the  olive  branch, 
and  he  rejoiced  in  the  victories  they  had  met  to 
celebrate.  But,  brilliant  as  were  our  late  suc 
cesses,  he  feared  they  could  never  be  made  to  blos 
som  into  the  peace  of  a  restored  Union,  unless 
properly  supported  by  liberal  and  catholic  proffers 
of  amnesty,  oblivion,  and  the  restoration  of  civil 
rights.  (Applause  and  some  dissent.) 

OIL  ("  OLIVE  ")  ON  THE  TROUBLED  WATERS. 

The  Chairman  desired  to  state  that,  if  he  were 
called  upon  to  express  his  opinions,  he  would  con 
cur  with  every  sentiment  uttered  by  the  last  speak 
er,  whom  he  hoped  to  see  elected  Counsel  to  the 
Corporation  next  year.  But  as  they  had  met  to 
pay  honor  to  two  gallant  and  successful  soldiers, 
and  as  he  saw  around  him  men  of  all  political 
creeds,  it  might  be  best  to  avoid  the  discussion  of 
such  topics ;  and  he  would  therefore  call  upon 
Captain  Blake,  of  the  headquarters  in  Bleecker 
street,  for  one  of  those  humorous  Irish  songs 
which  had  made  him  so  famous  in  the  social  circle. 
All  knew  that  the  Blakes,  Burkes,  and  Bodkins, 
were  the  three  great  Gal  way  families;  and  he 
would  beg  to  introduce  to  the  company  his  friend 
Captain  Blake  as  "a  worthy  representative  of  that 
Milesian  ilk. 


30  HONOR  TO  OUR  HEROES. 

CAPTAIN  BLAKE,  A.D.C.,  OF  GALWAY — A  SONG  FOR 
HIS  SUPPER. 

Captain  Blake,  who  is  tall  and  sinewy,  with  a 
Wellington  nose,  and  hair  of  that  peculiar  tinge 
now  so  popular  at  the  Parisian  Court  and  with  all 
our  hairdressers,  at  once  complied  with  the  request — 
only  hesitating  a  moment  as  to  whether  he  should 
"rowl  out"  for  them  the  Gruiskeen  Lawn,  the 
tShann  Van  Voght,  or  the  Suil,  Suil,  Suil  Aroon,  in 
his  native  Irish  tongue ;  or  the  "  Groves  of 
Blarney  "  in  Anglo-Saxon.  Being  told,  however, 
that,  after  the  flood  of  foreign  learning  in  a  pre 
ceding  speech,  the  company  would  not  now  object 
to  a  little  English,  and  learning  also  that  the 
"  Groves  of  Blarney  "  must  be  held  in  reserve  to 
be  sung  by  Judge  John  E.  Brady,  the  gallant 
Captain  decided  upon  another  lyric — supposed  to 
be  from  the  pen  of  Private  Miles  O'Eeilly, 
Forty-seventh  regiment,  New  York  Volunteers — 
a  copy  of  which  we  subjoin.  He  sang  it  to  the 
air  of  "  How  happy  could  I  be  with  either,"  and  it 
was  called  : 

MY  STHRONG  WAKENESS  FOR  WIDDIES. 

Arrah,  none  o'  your  boordin'  school  misses, 
Your  sweet,  timid  craytlmrs  for  me, 

Who  rave  about  cupid  an'  blisses, 
Yet  know  not  what  ayther  may  be ; 


HONOR  TO   OUR  HEROES.  31 

I  don't  feel  at  all  sintimintal, 

For  romance  I  care  niver  a  rap, 
But  give  me  a  plump,  jolly,  an'  gintle 

Young  widdy  in  weeds  an'  a  cap. 

To  her  I  would  offer  my  juty, 

For  in  tliruth  all  belief  it  exceeds, 
To  see  how  the  blossom  o'  beauty 

Is  hoigthened  by  peepin'  from  weeds ! 
She  is  armed  cap-a-pie  for  the  sthruggle, 

To  her  cap  I  a  captive  belong, 
And  the  charm  of  her  shly  little  ogle 

Is  a  challenge  to  coortship  an'  song ! 

The  thremors  o'  girlhood  are  over, 

Love's  blossom  has  ripened  to  fruit, 
An'  her  firsht  love,  ashleep  undher  clover, 

Is  the  sile  where  my  passion  sthrikes  root ; 
It  is  pleasant  to  know  the  departed 

Was  tindherly  cared  to  the  last, 
An'  that  she  will  not  die  broken-hearted 

If  I  should  pop  off  just  as  fast! 

Her  timper  is  never  so  restive, 

Her  juty  she  knows;  an'  a  shape 
Is  never  so  sweetly  suggestive 

As  whin  it  peeps  out  undher  crape ; 
The  girl  wears  wan  ring  whin  she  marries 

In  proof  she  all  others  discards, 
But  the  widdy- wife,  wiselier,  carries 

A  pair  o'  these  marital  guards. 

An'  so,  none  o'  your  boordin'  school  misses, 
Your  sweet,  timid  craythurs  for  me, 


32  HONOR  TO   OUR  HEROES. 

Who  rave  about  cupid  an'  blisses, 
Yet  know  not  what  ayther  may  be ; 

I  don't  feel  at  all  sintimintal, 
ISTor  care  I  for  Byron  a  rap — 

So  give  me  a  plump,  jolly,  an'  gintle 
Young  widdy  in  weeds  an'  a  cap ! 

Every  stanza  of  the  foregoing  called  forth  its 
full  share  of  applause  and  merriment,  Prince  John 
Yan  Buren  remarking  that  a  copy  should  at  once 
be  sent  to  General  Joe  Hooker,  who,  as  he  heard, 
was  about  marrying  a  fair  widow  hailing  from 
Cincinnati,  Chicago,  or  some  of  our  western  vil 
lages. 

GEN.  HOOKER  ABOUT  ASSUMING  A  NEW  COMMAND. 

Senator  Conness  begged  to  correct  the  honor 
able  gentleman  who  had  spoken  last.  The  in 
tended  bride  of  "Fighting  Joe"  was  young,  ar 
dent,  beautiful,  and  in  the  first  sweet  roseate  flush 
of  her  maiden  purity.  "  She  loved  Joe  for  the 
perils  he  had  passed,  and  he  loved  her  because  she 
pitied  him."  The  marriage  would  take  place  be 
fore  the  crocus  broke  through  the  snows  of  our 
earliest  spring ;  and  General  Hooker,  lifted  into 
the  seventh  heaven  of  his  desires,  would  have 
another  "battle  above  the  clouds."  (Eoars  of 
laughter.) 

Mr.  O'Gorman  only  desired  to  protest  against 


HONOR  TO   OUR  HEROES.  33 

the  quotation  Mr.  Conness  had  used — a  quotation 
from  the  scandalous  play  of  Othello,  describing 
the  marriage  of  a  colored  soldier  to  the  white 
daughter  of  a  Venetian  Senator.  He  regarded 
that  play  as  the  earliest  "  miscegenation  document " 
of  our  last  campaign  for  the  Presidency.  (Loud 
laughter  and  applause,  the  Kev.  Mr.  Beecher  cry 
ing  "A  hit — a  most  palpable  hit!") 

SECRETARY  STANTON  ON  THE  RAMPAGE — HIS  LET 
TER  TO  MR.  BRADY. 

In  response  to  repeated  invitations,  Mr.  James 
T.  Brady  said  that  he  had  no  speech  to  make,  but 
would  gladly  read  to  them  a  letter  from  Secretary 
Stanton,  which  he  had  received  just  as  he  was 
leaving  home  that  evening  to  attend  this  patriotic 
festival.  It  was  a  good  letter,  and  had  in  it  all 
its  writer's  characteristic  brevity  and  point.  It  ran 
as  follows : 

WAR  DEPARTMENT,  WASHINGTON,  Dec.  29,  1864. 
MY  DEAR  BRADY — Yours  of  the  16th,  covering  an  invi 
tation  of  the  New  York  National  Club,  to  pay  honor  to 
Grenerals  Sherman  and  Thomas,  has  come  to  hand;  but  I 
cannot  be  with  you,  though  the  movement  has  all  my 
sympathies.  We  had  great  difficulty  in  finding  the  right 
kind  of  tools  at  first ;  but  they  are  now  being  discovered 
by  experience :  and  in  Sherman  and  Thomas,  as  you  say, 
we  have  two  of  the  keenest  edge  and  finest  mettle.  Even 
had  I  time,  why  should  I  attend  your  festival?  Things  are 
2* 


3±  HONOR  TO  OUR  HEROES. 

all  going  well  to-day ;  and  it  is  only  when  disaster  happens 
that  the  Secretary  of  War  is  asked  after  or  remembered  by 
an  indignant  public.  Your  sincere  friend, 

EDWIN  M.  STANTON. 

•» 

The  laconic  and  tart  humor  of  this  characteristic 
note  created  much  amusing  comment ;  Governor 
Andrew  remarking  that  the  sting  of  the  affair 
could  not,  fortunately,  apply  to  him,  as  he  had 
made  honorable  mention  of  Mr.  Stanton's  beard 
and  spectacles  in  his  "  Song  of  the  Christmas 
Holidays."  (Loud  laughter.) 

ENTRANCE    OF    THE   TWELVE    CHORISTERS. 

Just  at  this  moment  the  door  on  the  chairman's 
right  was  flung  open,  and  Mr.  Stuart,  of  the 
Winter  Garden,  appeared,  ushering  in  twelve 
happy -looking  boys  arrayed  as  choristers.  They 
were  all  attired  in  white  linen  surplices,  with  cleri 
cal  sleeves,  small  red  woollen  hoods  hanging  back 
between  their  shoulders,  and  a  broad  blue  band 
of  satin  passing  round  the  neck  of  each  and  fall 
ing  down  in  double  lappels  over  the  white  surplice 
until  almost  touching  the  ground.  Each  of  these 
little  fellows  carried  a  bouquet  in  his  hand,  and  as 
they  filed  off  in  sixes,  half  upon  each  side  of  Prince 
Van  Buren's  chair,  at  the  head  of  the  table, 
the  tableau  was  extremely  picturesque,  and  created 
aot  a  little  surprise. 


HONOR  TO   OUR  HEROES.  80 

INTRODUCTORY  REMARKS  BY  MR.  STUART. 

Mr.  Stuart  explained  that,  on  behalf  of  the 
Club,  of  which  he  was  an  unworthy  member,  he 
had  volunteered  to  superintend  the  production  of 
a  little  choral  duet,  or  New  Year's  anthem,  appro 
priate  to  the  happy  prospects  of  peace  we  have 
now  before  us.  The  words  of  this  choral  duet,  or 
anthem — he  scarcely  knew  what  to  call  it — he  be 
lieved  he  would  commit  no  indiscretion  in  stating, 
had  been  furnished  by  one  of  the  reverend  gentle 
men  at  present  in  this  room.  (Questioning  looks 
from  the  guests  toward  Mr.  Beecher  and  the  Eev. 
Morgan  Dix,  but  neither  made  any  sign.)  With 
the  good  leave  of  the  company — all  of  whom  he 
should  be  delighted  to  see  at  the  Winter  Garden 
any  evening,  or  at  his  sea-side  villa  near  New 
London,  on  any  Friday  afternoon  they  could  run 
down  to  spend  a  couple  of  days  with  him — he 
would  now  call  upon  the  first  chorus  of  his  young 
and  interesting  charge  to  commence,  the  band 
being  requested  to  accompany  them  slowly,  and 
only  on  their  softest  instruments.  (Hushed  ap 
plause,  the  company  evidently  awaiting  with  much 
curiosity  and  interest  to  hear  what  was  to  come.) 

SONG  OF  THE  CHORISTERS. 

The  little  choristers  being  divided  into  two 
equal  bands,  the  first  chorus  of  six  sang  the  first 


36  HONOR  TO   OUR  HEROES. 

two  of  the  following  stanzas ;  the  second  chorus 
of  six,  the  next  two ;  and  then  all  twelve  sweet 
young  voices  joined  in  giving  pathos  and  sublimi 
ty  to  the  two  final  verses.  It  was,  like  all  that 
Mr.  Stuart  produces,  "  an  immense  success" — its 
idea  having  been  given  to  him  by  some  "  games 
of  Christmas  "  that  he  had  long  ago  witnessed  at 
the  house  of  his  honored  friend,  Mr.  Gladstone, 
the  celebrated  English  scholar,  orator,  and  states 
man.  With  these  matters  explained  before-hand, 
— thus  bringing  the  whole  scene  before  the  reader 
as  vividly  as  it  was  brought  before  the  guests, — we 
now  give  the  words  of  this  peculiar  and  striking 
anthem,  which  was  sung  to  the  well  known  old 
English  air  of  "Art  Thou  not  Fondly  My 
Own  :"— 

ANTHEM  OF  PEACE  AND  WAR. 
First  Chorus  of  Six  Voices. 

We  have  watched  through  the  weariest  midnights 

That  curtained  our  hope  of  Peace  ; 
We  have  waded  the  deepest  waters 

That  ran  between  us  and  Peace  ; 
We  have  climbed  o'er  the  roughest  mountains 

That  rose  between  us  and  Peace  ! 

It  hath  cost  us  woes  unnumbered, 

This  promise  we  have  of  Peace  ; 
Labors  and  bitter  privations 

Because  there  was  no  Peace; 


HONOR  TO   OUR  HEROES.  37 

And  the  bones  of  our  bravest  bleaching 
On  fields  that  were  not  of  Peace  ! 

Second  Chorus  of  Six  Voices. 

Famine  and  red-eyed  murder 

Are  leashed  in  the  hands  of  War ; 
Walls  that  are  blackened  and  roofless 

Lie  in  the  wake  of  War ; 
The  worm  and  the  flapping  buzzard — 

Oh;  these  are  the  Kings  of  War  ! 

Hollow-eyed  women  are  weeping 

The  waste  and  the  scourge  of  War  ; 
Wringing  their  pitiful  fingers 

And  wailing  the  woes  of  War ; 
As  their  children  wither  around  them 

Beneath  the  wan  blight  of  War ! 

Full  Chorus  of  Twelve  Voices. 

Oh.  wives,  with  your  husbands  in  battle, 

Think,  think  of  the  day  of  Peace ! 
Oh,  mothers,  with  sons  in  battle, 

Cling  close  to  the  hope  of  Peace  I 
Oh,  little  ones,  needing  your  fathers, 

Pray,  pray  for  the  hour  of  Peace  1 

Glory  to  G-od  in  the  Highest ! 

He  giveth  us  promise  of  Peace ! 
He  will  not  be  wrathful  for  ever, 

He  yet  will  restore  to  us  Peace — 
We  see  from  the  Wings  of  His  Healing 

Down  flutter  the  White  Dove  of  Peace ! 


38  HONOR  TO  OUR  HEROES. 

PRESENTATION   OF   BOUQUETS   BY   THE   CHORISTERS. 

This  anthem  was  received  with  the  compliment 
of  breathless  attention  during  its  progress ;  and 
fervent,  but  not  noisy  approval,  as  the  echoes  of 
the  last  lines  died  slowly  away,  as  if  trembling 
reluctantly  into  silence.  Mr.  Stuart  received  the 
thanks,  and  his  young  charge  the  compliments, 
of  all  present — six  of  the  young  choristers  then 
filing  off  and  presenting  their  bouquets  to  General 
Anderson,  the  first  hero  of  our  war;  and  the 
others  giving  one  bouquet  each  to  the  three  senior 
military  and  three  senior  naval  officers  who  were 
present.  In  their  dresses  of  "  red,  white  and  blue," 
and  with  their  young,  bright,  happy  faces,  this 
scene  was  not  only  pretty,  but  impressive  to  a 
degree  seldom  realized.  The  eyes  of  General 
Anderson  filled  with  happy  tears,  and  his  voice 
was  quite  broken  with  emotion  as  he  attempted 
to  thank  and  address  them. 


LAST    SCENE   OF   ALL BREAKING   UP   OF   A   DELIGHT 
FUL   PARTY. 

The  conclusion  of  this  ceremony  appeared  the 
signal  for  a  breaking  up  of  the  graver  part  of  the 
audience ;  Generals  Dix,  Hunter,  and  Anderson, 
Governor  Andrew,  the  reverend  gentlemen,  and 
many  others  at  once  retiring — as  shortly  after  did 


HONOR  TO   OUR  HEROES.  39 

your  reporter,  being  in  a  hurry  to  prepare  these 
notes.  When  he  left,  Dr.  Durant  was  discoursing 
about  the  Adirondacks;  George  Francis  Train 
about  the  Pacific  Railroad ;  Captain  Fox  about 
Monitor-built  Iron-clads ;  General  Webb  about 
bounty-swindling  in  New  York,  and  the  opera 
tions  of  Gen.  F.  B.  Spinola  in  that  connection 
at  Lafayette  Hall ;  Mr.  Dana,  with  General  Hart- 
suff,  on  the  true  principles  of  strategy;  while 
Swinton  was  growing  eloquent  and  pugnacious 
(all  by  himself)  over  Hooker's  fight  at  Lookout 
Mountain.  Messrs.  Brady,  Pierrepont,  Yan  Buren, 
Barlow  and  the  other  young  bucks  of  that  ilk  kept 
sloshing  around  indiscriminately,  each  satisfied 
that  his  own  speech  was  a  capital  speech  and  full 
of  interest,  and  that  if  all  the  others  in  the  room 
would  not  stop  talking  to  listen  to  it — why  so 
much  the  worse  for  them ! 

Thus  endeth  our  account  of  one  of  the  pleasant- 
est  and  most  perfectly  successful  public  entertain 
ments  we  have  attended  in  many  years ;  but  we 
feel  that  our  account  of  this  noble  banquet  would 
be  imperfect  if  we  failed  here  to  insert  the  power 
ful  and  brilliant  editorial  in  which,  on  the  same 
date,  the  veteran  Editor  of  the  Herald  called  atten 
tion  to  the  feast  and  its  importance,  both  in  rela 
tion  to  the  Soldiers'  Home  and  our  relations  with 
France  and  England.  Thus  wrote  Mr.  Bennett: 

"We   call  the   attention   of  all   patriotic  and 


40  HONOR  TO   OUR  HEROES. 

charitable  citizens  to  the  eloquent  appeal  of  Gene 
ral  Robert  Anderson  and  the  eruditely  splendid 
oration  of  Major-General  Dix,  elsewhere  published, 
in  favor  of  the  immediate  establishment  of  a  great 
National  Soldiers'  Home,  as  the  fittest  monument 
that  can  be  raised  in  token  of  our  gratitude  as  a 
people  for  the  recent  blessings  of  victory  which 
have  been  borne  to  us  on  the  standards  of  Grene- 
rals  Sherman  and  Thomas.  It  is  clear  enough 
from  Dr.  Agnew's  letter,  published  yesterday,  that 
nothing  in  the  way  of  making  a  permanent  provi 
sion  for  our  disabled  heroes  can  be  hoped  for  from 
the  Sanitary  Commission,  whose  resources  are 
represented  to  be  already  overtaxed.  It  therefore 
becomes  the  duty  of  all  our  patriotic  fellow-citizens 
to  at  once  commence  organizing  a  committee  hav 
ing  this  matter  of  a  National  Soldiers'  Home  for 
the  objective  point  of  its  beneficent  campaign, 
there  being  already  a  grand  nucleus  for  such  a 
charity  to  gather  around,  in  the  legacy  of  one 
million  dollars  from  the  Roosevelt  estate,  which 
the  members  of  that  loyal  and  distinguished  family 
are  anxious  to  devote  to  such  a  purpose,  as  was 
stated  by  Mr.  R.  B.  Roosevelt,  on  their  behalf,  at 
the  banquet  of  the  New  York  National  Club  last 
evening. 

"  The  speech  of  General  Dix,  and  more  espe 
cially  that  portion  of  it  referring  to  our  difficulties 
with  Canada  will  be  read  with  intense  interest, 


HONOR  TO  OUR  HEROES.  41 

both  in  the  British  provinces  and  empire.  It  is 
the  utterance  of  a  frank  and  accomplished  soldier, 
paying  implicit  obedience  to  the  authority  which 
revoked  his  recent  order,  but  still  not  afraid  to 
reassert,  with  firmness  and  dignity,  his  individual 
judgment  in  favor  of  a  stronger  and  less  hesitating 
course.  The  tumultuous  applause  with  which  this 
portion  of  the  General's  speech  was  received,  by 
an  audience  embracing  representative  men  of  all 
ranks  and  classes,  should  be  a  lesson  not  without 
significance  and  results  to  Mr.  Secretary  Seward." 


FALL  OF  FORT  FISHER. 

HOW     THE     NEWS     WAS     RECEIVED     IN     THE      CITY 

PRIVATE  O'REILLY  ON  A  RAMPAGE. 
From  the  Herald,  Jan.  18,  1865. 

THE  city  was  startled  yesterday  about  noon  by 
the  cheering  news  of  the  fall  of  Fort  Fisher.  It 
was  so  unexpected  by  the  people,  and  so  sudden, 
that  the  effect  was  electric.  As  usual  on  such 
occasions,  the  bulletin-boards  were  crowded,  the 
extras  were  in  demand,  and  the  victory  was  the 
subject  of  general  congratulation  in  the  public 
offices  and  other  places  of  resort.  Criticisms  on 
General  Butler  and  his  previous  fiasco  were  nume 
rous,  and  hardly  just  in  this  particular ;  but  the 
compliments  to  General  Grant  were  numerous 
and  nattering,  and  General  Terry  was  not  forgot 
ten.  There  was  a  general  inquiry  of  "  What 
next  ?"  and  the  thirst  for  news  was  only  sharp 
ened  not  quenched. 

We  are  deeply  chagrined,  however,  upon  a  fes 
tive  occasion  of  this  kind,  to  be  obliged  to  record 
the  fact  that  a  person  of  whom  we  have  heretofore 
tried  to  think  well,  should  have  brought  himself 
to  sudden  grief  by  giving  way  to  a  too  liberal 


FALL   OF  FORT  FISHER.  43 

spirit  of  rejoicing — the  "  spirit,"  especially — on  ac 
count  of  the  success  of  his  old  commander,  Grene- 
ral  A.  H.  Terry.  We  refer  to  that  eccentric  war 
rior  and  bard  of  the  old  Tenth  Army  Corps,  Private 
Miles  O'Reilly,  Forty-seventh  Regiment  New  York 
Volunteer  Infantry,  who,  about  nine  o'clock  last 
evening,  was  arrested  on  the  complaint  of  Mr. 
George  Roberts,  proprietor  of  the  American  Club 
House,  corner  of  Seventeenth  street  and  Broadway, 
charged  with  disorderly  and  riotous  conduct,  the 
use  of  much  profane  language,  and  a  general  chal 
lenge  to  any  one  who  would  tread  on  the  tail  of 
his  coat,  or  knock  an  imaginary  chip  off  his 
shoulder. 

It  seems  that  Private  O'Reilly,  in  a  state  of  high 
excitement,  entered  the  premises  of  Mr.  Roberts 
about  eight  p.  M.,  with  a  large  crowd  at  his  heels, 
all  of  whom  he  insisted  upon  treating ;  while  in  re 
turn  they  were  patiently  waiting  to  hear  him  sing 
a  song  he  had  just  composed  in  honor  of  the  cap 
ture  of  Fort  Fisher.  All  the  efforts  of  Mr.  Roberts, 
and  several  of  his  friends  who  were  present,  were 
inadequate  to  clear  the  room  of  this  noisy  and  un 
desirable  company,  who  were  vociferous  in  their 
demands  that  "  the  boy  should  be  let  sing  his  song 
out" — a  demand  which  they  enforced  by  threaten 
ing  to  break  the  decanters  and  mirrors  (two  of 
which  were  cracked  in  the  final  scuffle),  if  any 
interference  were  attempted.  Mr.  Roberts  on  this, 


44  FALL   OF  FORT   FISHER. 

seeing  present  resistance  to  be  vain,  appeared  to 
submit  contentedly,  only  taking  the  precaution, 
while  Miles  was  singing,  to  send  down  to  police 
headquarters  in  Mulberry  street  for  a  detachment 
of  the  Broadway  squad  to  clear  the  premises.  The 
crowd,  having  thus  secured  a  temporary  posses 
sion  of  the  bar  and  billiard-rooms,  proceeded  to 
help  themselves  indiscriminately  to  all  the  liquors 
they  desired — Mr.  Roberts,  as  his  only  means  of 
keeping  his  house  from  being  gutted,  directing  the 
two  bar-keepers  to  give  the  mob  all  they  asked  for. 
The  whole  rabble  being  thus  bounteously  supplied, 
Private  O'Reilly  was  lifted  upon  the  table  usually 
occupied  as  a  cigar  stand,  and  sang  as  follows : 

SHERRY,    TERRY   AND    PORTER A    LYRIC    OF    MIXED 

LIQUORS. 

Let  us  drink  in  golden  sherry  ! 

As  we  oft  have  drank  before, 
Let  us  drink  to  General  Terry, 
Long  of  head  and  body — very ; 
To  our  own,  dear  Alfred  Terry, 

Of  the  old  Tenth  Army  Corps  ! 

Mixing  drinks  is  dangerous— very, 
Bringing  headaches  we  deplore  ; 

But  to  Porter,  feeling  merry, 

We  drink  deep  in  golden  sherry — 

Be  it  long  ere  Charon's  wherry 
That  grim  Admiral  ferries  o'er ! 


FALL  OF  FORT  FISHER.  45 

Fill  to  Porter  and  to  Terry, 

They  are  names  that  we  adore ; 
From  Connecticut  to  Kerry, 
Some  in  grog  and  some  in  sherry, 
"  To  the  Admiral  and  to  Terry"— 
Deep  libations  let  *us  pour ! 

Bring  the  picks,  and  let  us  bury 
On  New  England's  rugged  shore, 

General  Butler,  who  is  very 

Far  from  feeling  extra  merry, 

As  he  reads  about  Alf.  Terry, 
Of  the  old  Tenth  Army  Corps ! 

Mr.  Lincoln,  who  is  very 

Deeply  skilled  in  classic  lore, 
Is  devoted  to  his  "  Terry" — 
His  " Terentius  Afer,"  very; 
But  we  better  like  Alf.  Terry, 

Of  the  old  Tenth  Army  Corps ! 

These  absurd  verses — mere  doggrel  when  criti 
cally  examined — the  noisy  and  much  excited 
crowd  appeared  to  relish  extremely,  and  persisted 
in  encoring  many  times,  the  room  growing  more 
densely  packed  every  moment,  as  the  orgie  pro 
ceeded,  by  swarms  of  idle  passers-by,  who  were 
attracted  within  by  the  singing,  vociferations, 
stampings,  and  other  indications  of  a  "  real  good 
time  "  going  on.  At  length,  just  as  the  choral  but 
rather  unsteady  Private  was  commencing  the  song 
again  for  the  fifth  or  sixth  time,  Sergeant  Young, 


46  FALL  OF  FORT  FISHER. 

chief  of  the  detectives,  appeared  upon  the  scene, 
followed  by  some  half-dozen  of  the  burly  Broad 
way  squad,  and  an  immediate  scattering  followed, 
the  police  (who  were  all  heavy  men  in  need  of 
"Banting,")  being  only  able  to  take  three  pri 
soners — one  Luke  Clark,  of  the  Fifth  Ward ;  James 
O'Keilly,  of  the  Sixteenth  Ward,  a  cousin  to  the  boy 
Miles ;  and  Private  Miles  himself — the  latter  in 
sisting  vigorously  that  he  had  only  been  "  amusin' 
his  mind  by  a  pathriotic  ditty,"  and  threatening 
the  policemen  who  were  carrying  him  off  to  the 
station-house  with  Fort  Lafayette  for  an  unlimited 
number  of  years,  "  whiniver  his  Eiverence's  Ex 
cellency,  the  President,  should  hear  what  kind  of 
a  game  they  had  been  up  to." 

The  trial  of  these  parties — continued  the 
Herald — will  take  place  this  morning  at  the 
Tombs,  being  set  down  for  eleven  o'clock,  and  will 
doubtless  be  largely  attended.  Mr.  Eoberts  esti 
mates  his  loss  in  liquors  and  broken  furniture  at 
about  five  hundred  and  eighty  dollars,  which  the 
county  will,  in  all  probability,  be  eventually  taxed 
to  pay.  The  last  heard  of  O'Reilly,  last  evening, 
he  was  extremely  noisy  in  his  cell  and  was  bellow 
ing  snatches  of  military  and  patriotic  ditties  to  the 
great  annoyance  of  various  somnolent  policemen 
who  were  on  duty  in  the  station-house,  as  also  of 
the  more  peaceful,  respectable,  and  quietly  disposed 
of  his  fellow-prisoners.  Of  the  songs  he  thus 


FALL  OF  FORT  FISHER.  47 

sang,  we  have  only  room  at  present  for  the  fol 
lowing,  which  he  declares  to  have  been  written  by 
one  Corporal  Florence  Mulcahy,  of  some  Connecti 
cut  regiment : 

HOW  WE  TALK  AT  OUR  CAMP  FIRES. 

We  have  heard  the  rebel  yell, 

We  have  given  the  Union  shout, 
We  have  weighed  the  matter  very  well 

And  mean  to  fight  it  out ; 
In  victory's  happy  glow, 

In  the  gloom  of  utter  rout, 
We  have  pledged  ourselves — "  Come  weal  or  woe, 

We  fight  this  quarrel  out." 

'Tis  now  too  late  to  question 

What  brought  the  war  about, 
'Tis  a  thing  of  pride  and  passion, 

And  we  mean  to  fight  it  out ; 
Let  the  big-wigs  use  the  pen, 

Let  them  caucus,  let  them  spout, 
We  are  half  a  million  weaponed  men 

And  mean  to  fight  it  out. 

Oar  dead,  our  loved,  are  crying 

From  many  a  stormed  redoubt, 
In  the  swamps  and  trenches  lying — 

"  Oh,  comrades,  fight  it  out ! 
'Twas  our  comfort  as  vre  fell 

To  hear  your  gathering  shout, 
Boiling  back  the  rebels'  weaker  yell — 

God-speed  you,  fight  it  out !" 


48  FALL  OF  FORT  FISHER. 

The  collud  pusson — free  or  slave — 

We  care  no  curse  about, 
But  for  the  flag  our  fathers  gave 

We  mean  to  fight  it  out ; 
And  while  that  banner  brave 

One  rebel  rag  shall  flout, 
With  volleying  arm  and  flashing  glaive'' 

We  fight  the  quarrel  out ! 

Oh,  we've  heard  the  rebel  yell, 

We  have  given  the  Union  shout, 
We  know  all  the  sounds  of  battle, 

And  we  mean  to  fight  it  out ; 
In  the  flush  of  perfect  triumph. 

And  the  gloom  of  utter  rout, 
We  have  sworn  on  many  a  bloody  field 

"  By  Heaven !  we  fight  it  out !" 


THE  MONKOE   DOCTEINE. 

THEORY   OF   THE   ORBITS   OF   POWER. 
From  the  New  York  Herald,  February  27,  1865. 

THAT  history  is  continually  repeating  itself  is 
not  a  remarkably  new  observation ;  but  is  one, 
the  truth  of  which  is  so  continually  forced  upon 
us,  that  again  and  again  it  rises  to  our  lips  or 
trickles  from  our  pen  as  if  spontaneously.  "  What 
has  been  shall  be,  and  what  is  has  been,"  may  be 
taken  as  a  summary  of  the  entire  history  of  the 
earth,  both  in  its  past  and  in  its  prophetic  applica 
tions.  The  same  causes  operating  upon  similar 
nations  invariably  produce  like  results ;  and  if  the 
Emperor  of  the  French,  in  place  of  writing  books 
about  Julius  Caesar,  would  only  condescend  to 
study  the  history  and  results  of  the  three  Punic 
wars,  he  might  learn  from  the  fate  of  Carthage  in 
that  struggle  a  lesson  of  unspeakable  value  at  the 
present  time  to  the  prospects  of  his  dynasty. 

The  Koman  commonwealth,  like  our  own,  had 
established  a  regular  Monroe  Doctrine  for  all  the 
islands  and  lands  adjacent  to  it ;  and  indeed  for  its 
own,  or  the  European  side  of  the  Mediterranean. 
It  had  its  own  orbit  of  power,  and  was  content 

3 


50  THE   MONKOE   DOCTKINE. 

• 

that  Carthage  should  sway  the  destinies  of  Africa, 
and  be  its  great  commercial  rival  on  the  seas  ;  but 
as  to  allowing  Carthage,  or  any  other  Power,  to 
come  as  a  disturbing  element  within  its  own  sphere 
of  political  action,  or  to -meddle  with  the  affairs 
either  of  Italy  or  the  dependencies  of  the  Italian 
Peninsula,  or  to  cross  the  Mediterranean  and  esta 
blish  ascendancy  in  any  of  the  countries  on  the 
European  side  adjoining  Eome,  "  Why  that," — 
said  the  Conscript  Fathers,  very  gravely — "that 
would  be  an  infringement  of  our  Monroe  Doc 
trine  ;  and  we  hereby  pledge  our  lives,  our  honors, 
and  our  sacred  fortunes,  that  we  will  give  our 
last  man  and  our  last  dollar  rather  than  submit  to 
any  such  intermeddling." 

This  resolution  of  the  Eoman  Senate  was  doubt 
less  forwarded  with  all  due  formalities  to  the  Car 
thaginian  Gerusia,  or  Council  of  State;  but  the 
Gerusians  committed  the  very  egregious  blunder 
of  believing  that  the  Senators  of  the  Seven-Hilled 
City  were  only  talking  for  buncombe  in  this  par 
ticular  declaration.  They  did  not,  or  could  not 
realize  that  the  Monroe  Doctrine  of  those  days  lay 
at  the  very  roots  of  the  Eoman  character ;  and 
that,  no  matter  how  long  its  professors  might  be 
compelled  by  domestic  trouble  or  rebellion  to  hold 
it  in  subordination,  and  keep  it  out  of  sight,  the 
very  moment  they  could  attain  peace  and  stable 
government  at  home,  all  their  efforts  and  sacrifices 


THE   MONKOE   DOCTRINE.  51 

would  instantly  be  turned  towards  a  vigorous  and 
relentless  enforcement  of  Prince  Henry's  darling 
theory : 

Two  stars  keep  not  their  courses  in  one  sphere, 
Nor  can  one  England  brook  the  double  reign 
Of  Harry  Percy  and  the  Prince  of  Wales. 

These  facts  and  these  passions  the  Grerusians  of 
Carthage  appeared  as  utterly  to  overlook  as  the 
French  Emperor  seems  to  be  overlooking,  or  ignor 
ing,  similar  facts  and  similar  passions  in  the  pre 
sent  day,  with  regard  to  ourselves.  Finding  the 
Eomans  involved  in  a  succession  of  civil  wars  and 
domestic  troubles,  the  Carthaginians  first  seized 
upon  Sardinia,  after  a  fierce  struggle,  and  subse 
quently  upon  Syracuse,  in  both  of  which  fruitful 
islands  they  established  friendly  governments  and 
most  wealthy  colonies — Eome  the  while  looking 
on  grimly,  but  without  power  to  interfere. 

At  length — disembarrassed  of  her  civil  troubles, 
and  probably  regarding,  as  we  shall  soon,  a  for 
eign  war  as  offering  the  best  means  for  reuniting 
her  lately  belligerent  component  parts — the  Ko- 
man  republic,  about  two  hundred  and  sixty  years 
before  the  commencement  of  the  Christian  era, 
gave  ear  to  the  cry  of  the  Messinians,  upon  whose 
soil  the  Carthaginians  were  attempting  a  fresh  vio 
lation  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine.  War  was  at  once 
declared  with  all  proper  pomp,  and  pushed  with 


52  THE   MONROE   DOCTRINE. 

every  energy  of  the  Koman  people.  In  a  year 
Syracuse  was  rescued  from  beneath  the  shadow  of 
foreign  domination  ;  the  Romans,  heretofore  with 
out  a  navy,  built  an  enormous  fleet ;  and,  in  the 
twenty-second  year  of  this  first  War  for  the  Monroe 
Doctrine,  after  the  Carthaginians  had  been  defeat 
ed  in  a  heavy  sea  fight  by  the  Romans  under 
Vice- Admiral  Lutatius  Catulus,  the  Gerusians  of 
Carthage  "  gave  a  receipt  for  the  maize,"  so  to 
speak — acknowledged  the  Monroe  Doctrine  of  the 
Roman  republic  in  its  full  integrity,  withdrew  from 
all  islands  and  territories  on  the  European  side  of 
the  Mediterranean,  released  all  Roman  prisoners 
without  ransom,  and  finally  paid  a  very  handsome 
sum  towards  defraying  the  expenses  of  this  war 
for  the  vindication  of  the  orbit  of  Roman  power — 
or  the  Monroe  Doctrine  of  the  present  day. 

The  second  Punic  war  had  a  similar  origin,  and 
was  waged  on  the  Roman  side  for  the  vindication 
of  the  self-same  principle.  The  Carthaginians  and 
their  mercenaries,  under  Hannibal,  captured  Sa- 
guntum,  a  town  on  the  eastern  coast  of  Spain,  and 
consequently  on  that  side  of  the  Mediterranean 
which  the  Romans  claimed  to  be  within  the  exclu 
sive  orbit  of  their  empire.  "  Two  stars  hold  not 
their  courses  in  one  sphere ;"  nor,  in  the  case  of  two 
great  and  progressive  nationalities,  can  one  infringe 
upon  the  circuit  or  orbit  of  the  other  without  lead 
ing  to  inevitable  and  most  disastrous  collisions. 


THE  MONROE  DOCTRINE.  63 

This  truth  neither  the  Carthaginian  wise  men  of 
old  nor  the  French  Emperor  at  the  present  day 
have  shown  any  ability  to  realize.  The  second 
Punic  war,  commenced  at  Saguntum,  lasted  for 
sixteen  years,  with  varying  fortunes — two  of  the 
greatest  generals  the  world  has  ever  seen,  Han 
nibal,  on  behalf  of  the  Carthaginians  and  Con 
quest,  and  Scipio  Africanus,  shouting  the  battle- 
cry  of  Rome  and  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  being  op 
posed  to  each  other  up  to  the  battle  of  Zama,  in 
which  the  cohorts  of  the  u  Grerusians"  went  heavily 
to  the  ground.  Carthage  was  then  stripped  of  all 
her  navy,  except  ten  triremes,  or  first-class  vessels 
of  war ;  was  deprived  of  every  inch  of  her  foreign 
territory,  and  was  compelled  to  pay  a  heavy  tribute 
for  some  years  towards  defraying  the  expenses  of 
her  conqueror. 

The  third  Punic  war  was  short,  sharp,  and  de 
cisive.  The  "  Gerusians"  of  Carthage  apparently 
could  not  or  would  not  learn  wisdom  from  the 
past,  but  still  kept  intermeddling  at  every  oppor 
tunity  with  affairs  and  with  territories  which  clear 
ly  fell  within  the  orbit  or  grand  circle  of  the  pro 
gress  of  the  Roman  Empire.  At  length  went 
forth  the  dread  decree,  delenda  est  Carthago,  or  Car 
thage  is  to  be  blotted  out — an  order  terribly  and 
brutally  executed  by  Major-General  Scipio  ^Emi- 
lianus  on  behalf  of  the  Romans,  the  walls  and 
houses  of  the  city  being  razed  to  their  very  founda- 


§4  THE   MONROE  DOCTRINE. 

tions,  and  all  of  Africa  that  once  owned  the  sway 
of  Carthage  becoming  thenceforth  annexed  as  a 
Roman  province.  Such  was  the  fate,  in  ancient 
times,  of  the  country  which  would  not  respect  the 
"  Monroe  Doctrine"  of  a  growing  and  powerful 
republic — that  doctrine,  in  a  word,  which  forbids 
any  foreign  Power  to  intrude  itself  within  the  orbit 
of  another,  if  it  be  wished  to  avoid  collisions. 

In  these  days  of  steam  the  Atlantic  is  no  more 
to  our  navies  than  was  the  Mediterranean  to  the 
galleys  and  triremes  of  the  ancient  Pceni  and  Qui- 
rites  of  Africa  and  Italy.  The  so-called  Monroe 
Doctrine  is  not  a  new-fangled  American  discovery 
or  claim,  but  an  eternal  principle  essential  to  the 
preservation  of  peace  between  all  progressive 
nations.  We  must,  at  any  cost,  keep  the  orbit 
through  which  our  star  of  empire  has  to  move, 
free  from  all  foreign  obstructions  or  interference. 
With  peace  reestablished  at  home,  we  shall  need 
employment  for  several  hundred  thousand  soldiers, 
drawn  from  both  armies,  who  have  accepted  the 
military  calling  as  the  profession  of  their  lives.  We 
cannot  with  honor,  and  we  cannot  with  safety, 
permit  the  erection  of  a  vast  French  colony  on 
our  Southern  frontier — for  to  that  Maximilian's 
empire  amounts,  and  to  nothing  more — and  it  is 
now  for  the  French  Emperor  to  say,  knowing  how 
unstable  in  France  are  the  elements  beneath  his 
throne,  whether  he  will  challenge  us  to  a  modern 


THE  MONROE  DOCTRINE.  55 

Punic  war,  in  which  will  inevitably  go  forth  the 
decree — not,  indeed,  that  Paris  is  to  be  blotted  out 
and  France  annexed — that  the  Napoleonic  dynasty 
shall  be  suppressed  and  kicked  into  obscurity  aa 
common  disturbers  of  the  peace  of  the  human 
family,  and  of  the  grand  imperial  orbit  of  the 
"  manifest  destiny"  of  these  United  States. 


"NEWS    FROM  PARNASSUS." 

UNDER  this  attractive  heading  a  paper  called  Mrs. 
Grundy  signalized  her  first  issue  by  a  gross  attack 
on  the  literary  character  of  a  somewhat  notorious 
contributor  to  the  columns  of  this  paper — THE 
NEW  YORK  CITIZEN.  What  the  Old  Lady  meant 
by  it,  we  are  at  a  loss  to  imagine.  We  never  trod 
on  her  toes,  injured  her  umbrella,  poked  fun  at  her 
poke-bonnet,  or  mislaid  her  pattens.  On  the  con 
trary,  our  notices  of  her  debfit  were  most  generous — 
perhaps  far  more  kindly  than  she  deserved ;  and 
should  have  been  paid  for  at  five  dollars  a  line : 
but  no  such  price,  nor  price  of  any  kind,  was 
given.  Fancy  our  feelings,  then,  when  we  found 
the  Old  Lady,  in  her  very  first  issue,  thus  accusing 
poor  Private  O'Reilly  of  plagiarism,  piracy,  "pri- 
vate-eering,"  and  other  nameless  offences.  The 
following  is  the  attack,  which  we  reproduce  verba 
tim  before  appending  our  reply : 

"  LITERARY  PRIVATE-BERING. 

"  Of  all  impositions  on  a  confiding  public,  literary 
deceptions  are  perhaps  the  most  odious.  The  man 
who  obtains  money  by  false  pretences  is  liable  to 
legal  punishment.  But  before  what  court,  other 


"NEWS  FKOM   PARNASSUS."  57 

than  that  of  public  opinion,  can  we  arraign  the 
obtainer,  on  false  pretences,  of  literary  fame  ? 

"  Into  these  reflections  we  have  been  led  by  the 
receipt  of  a  letter  from  the  Eeverend  and  Yene- 
rable  Father  Gulielmus  Henricus  Au-Kelius,  an 
eminent  and  learned  monk  of  the  Huron  Theolo 
gical  Institute,  in  Canada  West,  calling  attention 
to  the  fact  that  certain  songs  relative  to  our  late 
war  are  now  obtaining  currency,  both  here  and  in 
Europe,  as  original  productions ;  whereas,  in  fact, 
they  are  but  poor  translations  from  certain  of  the 
less  known  Latin  poets  of  the  Second  Empire. 

"  As  a  very  flagrant  instance  of  this  species  of 
misappropriation,  father  Au-Relius  sends  us  the 
original  Militum  Carmen,  from  the  works  of  Clau 
dius  Claudianus  (Amsterdam  edition  by  Burmann, 
1760),  the  last  of  the  Latin  Classic  Poets,  who 
flourished  in  the  time  of  Theodosius,  enjoying  the 
patronage  of  the  Empress  Serena,  and  who  finally 
had  a  statue  of  honor  erected  to  his  memory  in 
the  Forum  of  Trajan. 

"  This  beautiful  relic  of  antique  genius,  which 
originally  appeared  in  the  De  bello  Gildonico — an 
unfinished  historical  poem,  by  Claudianus,  on  the 
war  in  Africa  against  Gildo — has  been  rather 
poorly  translated  quite  recently,  and  has  obtained 
wide  currency  in  literature  as  the  '  Song  of  the 
Soldiers,'  its  translator — one  Soldier  O'Keilly,  or 
Miles  Au-Relius,  as  the  learned  Father  calls  him 
3* 


58  "NEWS  FROM  PARNASSUS." 

— impudently  palming  off  his  coarse  English  ren 
dering  as  an  effort  of  his  own  muse. 

"Here  is  the  true  Militum  Carmen  of  Claudianus ; 
and  that  every  reader  may  be  able  to  judge  for 
himself  how  grossly  it  has  suffered  in  the  Miles 
Au-Eelian  or  O'Reillyan  translation,  we  follow  it 
with  the  lame  English  version  of  the  classical 
*  Private,'  who  must  hereafter  change  his  title  to 
that  of  '  Pirate '  in  the  minds  of  all  scholarly 
men: 

"  '  MILITUM    CARMEN. 

"  '  Agmine  in  crebro  comites  probati, 
Cogniti  multis  socii  periclis, 
Semper  ut  fratres  memori  fideles 
Corde  revincti. 

"  t  Distrahat  vulnus  maciesque  turpis, 
Distrahat  jussu  subito  Imperator, 
Accidat  quidvis,  sumus  usque  fido 
Pectore  fratres. 

"  l  Cogniti  vinclo  fidei  serense, 
Morte  in  extrema  socii  probati, 
Cogimur  fratrum  pietate  sacra 

Omne  per  sevum. 

"  '  Sin  Deus  plures  hiemes  det  aequus, 
Stabimus  fortes  acieque  recta", 
Semper  et  fraternus  amor  calebit 
Pectore  in  imo. 


FROM  PARNASSUS."  59 


Per  fidem  signi  laceri  duello, 

Per  fidem  signi  dominantis  orbem, 

Jungimur  vinclo  fidei  tenaci 

Semper  eodem. 

{  Symbolum,  partes,  nihilum  valebunt, 
Lingua  nee  gentes  diriment  amorem, 
Accidat  quidvis;  aquilae  tonantis 
Inclyta  proles.' 


"'SONG  OF  THE  SOLDIERS. 

["  Translation  of  the  foregoing,  audaciously  claimed  as  origi 
nal  by  PRIVATE  MILES  O'EEILLT.] 

"  '  Comrades  known  in  marches  many, 
Comrades  tried  in  dangers  many, 
Comrades  bound  by  memories  many, 

Brothers  evermore  are  we ; 
Wounds  or  sickness  may  divide  us, 
Marching  orders  may  divide  us, 
But,  whatever  fate  betide  us, 

Brothers  of  the  heart  are  we. 

" '  Comrades  known  by  faith  the  clearest, 
Tried  when  death  was  near  and  nearest, 
Bound  we  are  by  ties  the  dearest, 

Brothers  evermore  to  be ; 
And,  if  spared  and  growing  older, 
Shoulder  still  in  line  with  shoulder, 
And  with  hearts  no  thrill  the  colder, 

Brothers  ever  we  shall  be. 


60  "NEWS  FROM  PARNASSUS." 

"  '  By  communion  of  the  banner, 
Battle-scarred  but  victor  banner, 
By  the  baptism  of  the  banner, 

Brothers  of  one  church  are  we ; 
Creed  nor  faction  can  divide  us; 
Race  nor  language  can  divide  us ; 
Still,  whatever  fate  betide  us, 

Brothers  of  the  heart  are  we  I* 

"May  we  not  well  say  of  this:  '  The  force  of 
impudence  can  no  farther  go  ?'  Not  only  is  the 
translation  a  poor  and  decrepit  one,  but  some  of 
its  finest  ideas — 

"  '  aquilae  tonantis 

Inclyta  proles,' — 

for  example,  are  wholly  omitted  and  ignored. 

"  In  some  subsequent  issue,  we  shall  call  atten 
tion  to  yet  other  Classical  Piracies  of  the  same 
kind  by  this  and  other  putative  authors,  the  sub 
ject  being  enormously  prolific;  insomuch  that 
very  nearly  one-half  the  popular  songs  of  the 
present  day,  for  which  certain  of  our  illuminati 
receive  credit  as  original,  will  be  found,  on  com 
petent  examination,  to  be  mere  translations,  of 
more  or  less  merit,  from  certain  neglected  authors, 
writing  in  the  Latin,  Greek,  Irish,  Sanscrit,  Gaelic, 
Sclavonian,  or  other  '  unknown  tongues.'  ? 

To  the  foregoing  charge  our  answer  is  as  fol 
lows  :  We  want  to  see  that  "  Amsterdam  Edition 


UNEWS  FEOM   PARNASSUS."  61 

by  Burmann,  1760,"  of  the  works  of  Claudius 
Olaudianus  before  losing  faith  in  the  honor  of  our 
eccentric  Milesian  Boy.  General  Dix  informs  us 
that  he  has  searched  his  edition  of  Claudianus,  and 
all  the  editions  in  the  Astor  Library,  but  no  such 
verses  can  be  found  therein  ;  and  Mr.  Alexander 
T.  Stewart — a  very  excellent  classical  scholar,  who 
has  held  on  to  his  early  studies  and  accomplish 
ments  through  a  life  of  the  most  successful  labor 
in  the  whole  history  of  commerce — has  distinctly 
authorized  us  to  offer  the  handsome  sum  of  $10,000 
"  for  any  not  forged  edition  of  the  poet  in  ques 
tion,"  or  any  other  "  of  the  less  known  Latin  poets 
of  the  Second  Empire"  containing  the  Militum  Car 
men  as  above  quoted. 

Has  not  the  "  Keverend  and  Venerable  Father 
Gulielmus  Henricus  Au-Kelius,"  who  is  described 
by  Mrs.  Grundy  as  "an  eminent  and  learned 
monk  of  the  Huron  Theological  Institute,  in 
Canada  West" — has  not  that  pious  and  exemplary 
man  been  rather  poking  some  classical  fun  at  the 
Old  Lady,  which  the  Old  Lady  may  have  taken 
too  literally  ?  In  a  word — Is  the  English  a  trans 
lation  from  the  Latin  of  Claudius  Claudianus,  who 
lived  more  than  a  thousand  years  ago ;  or  is  the 
Latin  of  Claudianus  a  translation  from  the  English 
of  Private  Miles,  who  is  alive  and  kicking  to-day — 
and  somewhat  anxious,  were  she  not  a  woman,  to 
kick  Mrs.  Grundy  ? 


62  "NEWS  FKOM  PARNASSUS" 

The  original  family  name  of  the  O'Reillys,  as  ia 
well  known,  was  Au-Relius — the  Boy  Miles  claim 
ing  an  unbroken  lineal  descent  from  Marcus  Au- 
Relius  Antoninus,  who  succeeded  to  the  Roman 
Empire  on  the  death  of  Antoninus  Pius,  whose 
daughter,  Festina,  this  Marcus  O'Reilly  had  pre 
viously  espoused.  It  is  from  the  paternal  side, 
therefore,  the  Boy  professes  to  derive  his  devotion 
to  philosophy  and  literature ;  while  the  pious  part 
of  his  character  comes  to  him  through  his  ances 
tress,  the  Empress  Festina,  whose  father  was  known 
in  life  as  Antony  the  Pius — or  "  Praying  Tony," 
as  the  Boy  irreverently  styles  him.  Now,  is  it 
not  just  possible  that  this  u  Father  Gulielmus  Hen- 
ricus  Au-Relius,"  of  the  Huron  University,  may 
be  some  disappointed  member  of  the  O'Reilly 
family — perhaps  a  near  relative — who  is  jealous 
of  the  success  of  our  humble  soldier-poet,  and 
takes  this  surreptitious  method  of  attempting  to 
injure  him  in  Mrs.Grundy's  and  the  public's  esti 
mation  ?  So  clearly  is  this  our  own  view  of  the 
case,  that  we  "  see  "  Mr.  A.  T.  Stewart's  offer  of 
$10,000  for  that  Amsterdam  volume,  and  "go 
twenty  thousand  dollars  better !"  Will  Father 
"William  Henry  O'Reilly,  of  Canada  West,  send  us 
on  his  proofs  ? 


BOUNTY-SWINDLING   AS  ONE   OF  THE 
FINE  ARTS. 

ITS   ORIGIN   AND   OFFICERS   IN  THE  DAYS    OF   KING 
HENRY   IV. 

[From  the  New  York  Herald,  Dec.  25th,  1864.] 

To  say  that  many  of  the  public  men  and  most 
of  the  newspapers  of  the  day  are  great  nincom 
poops,  would  be  merely  to  state  a  truism  with 
which  every  intelligent  American  is  already  as 
familiar  as  with  his  creed.  We  have  an  illustra 
tion  of  this  in  regard  to  the  fuss  that  is  being 
everywhere  made  about  "  bounty  swindling,"  as 
if  it  were  "  a  new  crime,"  a  "  heretofore  unheard 
of  atrocity,"  which  was  born  within  the  last 
year  and  a  half,  and  received  its  first  pap 
within  the  precincts  of  a  New  York  drinking- 
house. 

Now  the  fact  is,  that  we  first  hear  of  "  bounty- 
swindling  as  one  of  the  fine  arts"  in  the  reign  of 
King  Henry  IY.  of  England,  the  headquarters  in 
which  it  originated  being  those  of  Brigadier-Gene 
ral  Sir  John  Falstaff,  and  their  location  the  tavern 
of  "  mine  hostess  Quickly,"  in  Cheapside,  London, 


64  BOUNTY-SWINDLING. 

and  not  in  the  headquarters  of  Brigadier-General 
F.  B.  Spinola  at  Lafayette  Hall  in  the  city  of  New 
York.  The  facts  of  this  interesting  historical  case 
are  about  as  follows : — Jefferson  Hotspur  had 
raised  an  insurrection  in  the  Northern  counties  of 
England,  as  Jefferson  Davis  has  since  raised  an 
insurrection  in  the  Southern  States  of  our  country. 
Jeff.  Hotspur  expected  help  from  Owen  Glen- 
dower,  of  Wales,  from.  Northumberland,  France, 
and  various  other  foreign  and  domestic  potentates, 
just  as  Jeff.  Davis  recently  expected  help  from 
France,  England,  and  the  domestic  Longs,  Yoor- 
heeses  and  Vallandighams  of  the  great  North-west. 
Both  the  Jeffs,  were  disappointed,  and  in  both  cases 
the  regular  powers  of  their  respective  govern 
ments  proceeded  to  "  seize,  occupy,  and  repossess" 
the  revolted  strongholds  and  regions. 

King  Henry  IV.,  however,  did  not  fall  into  the 
error  of  believing  that  "  it  wouldn't  be  much  of  a 
shower  after  all ;"  nor  did  his  Secretary  of  State, 
the  Earl  of  Westmoreland,  give  any  note  of  hand 
for  "  peace  within  ninety  days."  These  matters 
are  not  so  stated  in  the  chronicles ;  but  we  infer 
them  from  the  fact  that  there  was  no  call  for  "  three 
months'  men"  on  the  first  breaking  out  of  the  Jeff. 
Hotspur  insurrection.  The  order  was  to  call  out 
men,  and  call  them  out  immediately,  their  term 
of  service  to  extend  ufor  life  or  during  the 
war." 


BOUNTY-SWINDLING.  65 

Matters  being  thus,  the  Prince  of  Wales,  a  gay, 
young,  rollicking  buck — who  had  keen  percep 
tions  of  the  ludicrous,  and  knew  how  to  use  all 
ranks  and  classes  of  men  in  their  proper  sphere^ — 
determined  to  employ  the  well-known  tavern 
popularity  of  a  lewd  old  knight  named  Sir  John 
Falstaif  for  the  purpose  of  raising  a  brigade.  Sir 
John  immediately  saw  it  was  "a  big  thing,"  and 
accepted  accordingly.  He  at  once  opened  his 
recruiting  depot  in  the  tavern  of  Mrs.  Quickly, 
Cheapside ;  and  there  were  employed  under  him,  as 
sub-brokers,  runners,  and  "shanghaers,"  a  choice 
party,  consisting  of  Cap  tains  Pistol,  Bardolph,  Gads- 
hill,  Poins,  and  their  associates,  most  of  these  being 
highwaymen,  baggage-smashers,  pickpockets,  and 
plug-uglies — precisely  the  same  class  that  we  find 
employed  in  the  same  business  on  this  side  of  the 
Atlantic. 

It  nowhere  appears  that  Sir  John  Falstaff  was 
court-martialed,  as  General  Spinola  has  been,  al 
though  we  know  that  he  was  finally  sent  to  the 
Tower — the  Fort  Lafayette  of  those  days — under 
a  summary  order  from  the  Lord  Chief-Justice  of 
England,  who  declared  a  suspension  of  the  habeas 
corpus  in  his  case.  The  only  evidence,  therefore, 
that  we  can  hope  for  as  to  the  modus  operandi  of 
this  ancient  knight  in  the  matter  of  "bounty- 
swindling  as  one  of  the  fine  arts,"  we  must  take 
from  his  own  volunteered  confession,  in  Scene  II. 


66  BOUNTY-SWINDLING. 

Act  IV.,  of  the  veracious  chronicles  of  the  reign 
of  King  Henry  IV.,  as  handed  down  to  us  by  one 
"William  Shakspeare — a  rather  able  journalist  of 
those  days — who  wrote  for  an  evening  newspaper 
called  The  Globe  Theatre,  which  was  the  New  York 
Associated  Press  of  that  benighted  age. 

Now  let  us  hear  Sir  John  : — He  confesses,  after 
his  brigade  has  been  raised,  that  he  has  "  misused 
the  king's  press,"  i.e.  the  right  of  conscription — 
"damnably."  "I  have  pressed  me,"  says  he, 
"  none  but  good  householders,  yeomen's  sons  ; 
inquired  me  out  contracted  bachelors,  such  as  had 
been  asked  twice  on  the  bans ;  such  a  commodity 
of  warm  slaves,  as  had  as  lief  hear  the  devil  as  a 
drum  ;  such  as  fear  the  report  of  a  culverin  worse 
than  a  struck  fowl  or  a  hurt  wild  duck.  I  pressed 
me  none  but  such  toasts  and  butter,  with  hearts 
in  their  bellies  no  bigger  than  pins'  heads ;  and 
they  have  bought  out  their  services  !  And  now, 
my  whole  charge  consists  of  ancients,  corporals, 
slaves  as  ragged  as  Lazarus  in  the  painted  cloth, 
where  the  glutton's  dogs  licked  his  sores ;  and 
such  as  indeed  were  never  soldiers,  but  discarded 
unjust  serving  men,  revolted  tapsters  and  ostlers 
trade-fallen — the  cankers  of  a  calm  world  and  a 
long  peace ;  ten  times  more  dishonorably  ragged 
than  an  old-faced  ancient ;  and  such  have  I  to  fill 
up  the  room  of  them  that  have  bought  out  their 
services,  that  you  would  think  that  I  had  a  hun- 


BOUNTY-SWINDLING.  67 

dred  and  fifty  tattered  prodigals  lately  come  from 
swine-keeping — from  eating  draff  and  husks  !  A 
mad  fellow  met  me  on  the  way,  and  told  me  I  had 
unloaded  all  the  gibbets  and  pressed  the  dead 
bodies!  No  eye  hath  seen  such  scare-crows." 
Now,  let  the  examining  surgeons  on  our  own 
Hart's  and  Biker's  islands  and  elsewhere  be  con 
sulted  as  to  whether  the  foregoing  be  not  an  exact 
and  striking  picture  of  the  kind  of  recruits  who 
were  submitted  to  their  inspection  as  the  results 
of  our  own  u  bounty -swindling  "  system  in  this 
country  and  city  ? 

But  not  only  was  the  ancient  knight  thus  mak 
ing,  in  the  words  of  our  beloved  and  classical 
president,  a  "  big  thing"  out  of  the  price  paid  by 
those  whom  he  exempted,  but  it  would  also  seem 
that  he  had  a  bounty  of  over  two  pounds  in  gold 
for  each  man  thus  drafted — a  bounty  which  he 
seems  to  have  absorbed  altogether,  and  which,  as 
gold  was  then,  and  as  greenbacks  are  now,  must 
be  considered  fully  equal  to  the  three  hundred 
dollars  county  bounty  of  the  present  day.  "  I 
have  got,"  says  he,  referring  to  the  Supervisors' 
Committee  of  that  remote  age,  "  I  have  got,  in 
exchange  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  soldiers,  three 
hundred  and  odd  pounds  sterling  ;"  these  hundred 
and  fifty  men  being  the  same  from  whom  he  sub 
sequently  drew  a  double  profit  by  allowing  them 
to  "  buy  out  their  time." 


68  BOUNTY-SWINDLING. 

But  the  parallel  does  not  end  here.  In  fact, 
there  is  no  branch  of  the  "  bounty-swindling  " 
system  of  to-day  which  will  not  find  in  the  opera 
tions  of  Sir  John  Falstaff,  of  his  Britannic  Majes 
ty's  Volunteers,  a  precise  archetype  and  master- 
sample.  We  know  that  much  of  the  recruiting 
now  carried  on  is  through  the  agency  of  our 
police  officers  and  justices,  who  place  before  all 
arrested  criminals  in  our  city — save  those  arrested 
for  crimes  too  heinous  and  notorious  to  be  sup 
pressed — the  alternative  either  of  enlisting  and 
allowing  their  bounties  to  go  somewhere,  or  of 
going  themselves  to  the  penitentiary  or  State  pri 
son.  Now,  in  this  mode  of  "  filling  up  the'  ranks 
of  the  gallant  defenders  of  our  country,"  and  fill 
ing  their  own  pockets  at  the  same  time,  these  gen 
tlemen  may  think  themselves  original ;  but  let 
them  now  hear  the  great  master  of  "bounty- 
swindling  as  one  of  the  fine  arts"  on  this  sub 
ject  :— 

We  have  seen  that  Sir  John  Falstaff  first 
allowed  the  good  and  decent  men  drafted  to  "  buy 
out  their  time,"  himself  pocketing  the  bribes.  We 
have  seen,  also,  that  he  pocketed  the  whole  of 
their  "  county  bounties"  for  the  use  of  himself 
and  his  associate  sub-brokers,  Messrs.  Pistol,  Bar- 
dolph  and  Company.  How  then  did  he  induce 
the  "  scare-crows"  to  enlist  under  him  without 
money  and  without  price  ?  Why,  obviously  by 


BOUNTY-SWINDLING.  69 

just  the  same  means  that  are  employed  to-day  by 
our  policemen  and  police  j  ustices ;  he  gave  them 
the  alternative  of  remaining  in  jail  or  "marching 
to  the  music  of  the  Union."  If  you  doubt  it 
just  consult  his  words  : — •"  Nay,  and  the  villains 
march  wide  betwixt  the  legs,  as  if  they  had  gyves 
on ;  for,  indeed,  I  had  the  most  of  them  out  of 
prison."  That  he  knew  them  to  be  all  thieves,  or 
most  of  them,  at  least,  is  further  evidenced  by  the 
fact,  that  he  consoles  himself  for  their  having 
"  but  a  shirt  and  a  half"  in  the  whole  brigade  by 
the  reflection :  "  But  that's  all  one ;  they'll  find 
linen  enough  on  every  hedge."  How  they  ap 
peared  to  the  eye  of  an  experienced  commander 
may  be  judged  from  the  exclamation  of  Prince 
Henry  who  passed  them  on  the  road  as  he  hur 
ried  forward  to  battle :  "I  never  did  see  such 
pitiful  rascals ;"  to  which  Sir  John  Falstaff 
promptly  replied :  "  Tush,  tush !  they  are  good 
enough  to  toss ;  food  for  powder,  food  for  pow 
der  ;  they  will  fill  a  pit  as  well  as  better — "  thus 
illustrating  precisely  the  value  which  certain  of 
our  modern  knights,  who  only  entered  the  service 
apparently  to  make  money,  are  apt  to  place  both 
on  the  lives  of  their  men  and  the  true  service  of 
their  government.  But  of  course  in  none  of  the 
foregoing  remarks  must  we  be  misunderstood  as  in 
the  slightest  degree  reflecting  on  any  of  the  pure, 
patriotic,  and  disinterested  officers  who  recently 


70  BOUNTY-SWINDLING. 

did  business  at  Lafayette  Hall,  previous  to  the 
closing  of  that  disgrace  to  our  country  by  the 
action  of  Maj.-Gen.  Dix  and  the  minor  ministra 
tions  of  Private  Miles  O'Eeillv. 


"  NEWS  FEOM  PARNASSUS." 

GENERAL    DIX    AND    PRIVATE   MILES    AS    RIVAL    POETS 
AND    SCHOLARS. 

GENERAL  DIX,  as  should  be  well  known  to  every 
one,  is  an  extremely  elegant  classical  scholar,  who 
has  carried  forward  with  him  through  all  the 
varied  and  valuable  labors  of  his  public  life  an 
unfading  love  and  continual  study  of  those  great 
masters  of  antiquity  by  whose  precepts  and  upon 
whose  model  his  own  pure  and  noble  mind  was 
originally  formed.  Let  any  one  who  seeks  to 
know  the  value  of  such  an  education  contrast  the 
dignity,  urbanity,  and  stainless  integrity  which 
have  marked  the  life  of  this  gentleman  with  the 
far  different  qualities  for  which  too  many  of  our 
public  men  are  alone  to  be  distinguished,  and  we 
think  a  full  answer  will  be  given  to  the  too  com 
mon,  though  vulgar  and  senseless  inquiry  :  "  Of 
what  practical  use  are  classical  attainments?" 
This,  however,  is  a  digression ;  and  now  to  the 
6rigin  of  these  rival  translations  by  General  Dix, 
commanding  Department  of  the  East,  and  Private 
O'Reilly,  the  orderly  who  stood  outside  his  door, 
of  the  famous  Thirtieth  Ode  of  the  Third  Book  of 
Horace. 


72  "NEWS  FJROM  PARNASSUS." 

A  lady  of  illustrious  name,  who  lives  at  Balti 
more,  and  who  is  herself  a  very  elegant  Latin 
scholar — as  in  what  other  matters  is  she  not  ele 
gant? — wrote  to  General  Dix  requesting  him  to 
furnish  for  her  album  an  English  rendering  of  the 
ode  in  question :  an  ode,  she  added,  "  with  the 
confident  promise  of  which,  as  she  felt  assured,  he 
must  deeply  sympathize." 

As  prompt  in  replying  to  the  calls  of  gallantry 
as  of  duty,  and  peculiarly  anxious  to  oblige  a  lady 
who  has  so  many  and  such  great  claims  on  the 
admiration  of  all  who  know  her — the  General 
seized  the  first  leisure  ten  minutes  he  could  find 
and  knocked  off  the  following  extremely  literal, 
and  yet  extremely  elegant,  translation  : 

EXEGI   MONUMENTUM  ^ERE  PEEENNIUS. 

I  have  reared  a  monument  to  fame 

More  durable  than  solid  brass, 
Which  will,  in  loftiness  of  aim, 

The  regal  pyramids  surpass. 

No  wasting  shower,  no  rending  storm 
Shall  mar  the  work  my  genius  rears ; 

No  lapse  of  time  shall  change  its  form, 
No  countless  series  of  years. 

I  shall  not  wholly  die  :  my  name 
Shall  triumph  o'er  oblivion's  power, 

And  fresh,  with  still  increasing  fame, 
In  glory  posthumous  shall  tower, 


"NEWS  FKOM   PARNASSUS."  73 

While  to  the  Capitolium 

The  Priest  and  Silent  Virgin  come. 

Where  Aufidus  impetuous  roars, 
And  Daunus,  over  arid  shores 

And  rural  populations  reigns — 
Shall  I,  once  weak — now  potent — live 
As  first  of  all  the  bards  to  give 

^Eolian  verse  to  Latin  strains. 

Give  me,  Melpomene  divine  ! 

The  glory  due  to  deathless  lays ; 
Propitious  to  my  vows  incline 

And  crown  me  with  Apollo's  bays ! 

This  translation  completed,  the  General  imme 
diately  touched  his  bell  and  ordered  an  orderly  to 
"send  in  O'Keilly,  without  delay  "—the  General 
doing  but  little  in  the  classics  or  belles-lettres  with 
out  the  sanction,  or  at  least  the  knowledge,  of  that 
ripe  though  humble  authority. 

"  Miles,"  said  the  General,  as  the  boy  himself 
stood  before  him  in  the  first  position  of  a  soldier : 
"  Miles,  my  boy,  in  the  republic  of  letters  there 
are  no  distinctions  of  shoulder-straps  or  cross- 
belts.  Unlimber  yourself,  therefore ;  take  a  seat 
for  a  few  minutes,  and  tell  me  what  you  think  of 
this  rendering." 

Here  the  General  handed  to  CTKeilly  the  still 
wet  copy  of  his  translation,  and  briefly  told  him 
how  it  came  to  be  written — reading  an  extract 
4 


74 


containing  the  request  for  it  from  the  madame's 
letter. 

"  Well,  my  good  fellow,"  continued  the  General, 
as  Miles,  having  read  the  lines  twice,  handed  them 
back  to  him  in  silence,  "  what  do  you  find  wrong 
in  them,  or  what  do  you  think  about  them? 
Come,  be  frank ;  you  know  it  is  not  the  first  time 
you  have  given  your  opinion  boldly." 

The  boy  shuffled  uneasily  a  moment,  and  then 
murmured  in  a  brogue,  unusually  broad,  something 
to  the  effect  that,  under  no  possible  circumstances, 
could  it  be  right  for  a  private  in  the  ranks  to  tell 
his  Major-General  Commanding  that  he  "  was 
making  a  judy  of  himself;"  which,  let  us  add,  as 
a  general  proposition,  is  undoubtedly  as  true  as 
preaching.  The  translation  was  all  right  in  itself: 
wonderfully  literal,  and  yet  wonderfully  elegant. 
But  the  General  was  obtuse,  or  over-modest ;  and 
clearly  showed,  in  his  exact  rendering,  that  he 
missed  the  delicate  compliment  which  the  madame 
had  intended. 

This  in  substance :  for  the  speaker  stammered 
badly,  and  his  brogue  was  a  broader  brogue  than 
ever. 

"  Explain  yourself  more  clearly,  Miles,"  said 
the  amused  General,  leaning  back  in  his  chair. 
"Don't  hurry  yourself;  take  time:"  for  it  was 
now  long  after  office-hours — in  fact,  near  ten 
o'clock  at  night. 


"NEWS  FROM  PARNASSUS."  75 

Miles  answered,  blushingly,  that,  if  his  honor's 
generalship  would  give  him  a  pen  and  liberty  to 
sit  at  Major  Joline's  table  for  ten  minutes,  he'd 
try  explain  to  the  best  of  his  ability — and  sure, 
the  best  of  men  could  do  no  more — what  his  (the 
boy's)  idea  was  of  the  true  purpose  contained  in 
the  madame's  request. 

This  consent  being  accorded — after  half-an- 
hour's  hard  head-scratching,  Miles  reappeared  out 
of  the  next  room,  his  face  radiant  with  smiles, 
and  a  much-blotted  page  of  foolscap  in  his 
extended  hand.  "  This,  General,"  he  said,  "  is 
my  own  poor  notion  of  the  kind  of  paraphrase 
the  madame  had  in  her  mind  :" 

EXEGI   MONUMENTUM  ^ERE   PEKENNIUS. 

I  have  built  me  a  monument  stronger  than  brass, 

Than  the  pyramids  more  sublime; 
Which  will  bow  to  no  storms  as  they  furiously  pass, 

Nor  will  yield  to  the  sharp  tooth  of  time. 

The  grave  shall  not  bury  the  light  of  my  name. 

My  thoughts  shall  not  sleep  in  the  tomb ; 
But  in  ages  to  come  on  the  high  hills  of  fame 

My  deeds  and  their  motives  shall  bloom. 

While  seaward  the  Hudson  rolls  down  through  the  land, 
And  wherever  the  flag  of  our  country  may  fly, 

Men  will  say,  as  they  number  the  patriot  band, 

"  It  was  he  first  gave  order—'  The  traitor  shall  die  !'  " 


76 

In  duty  performed  is  the  true  pride  of  men, 

Which  even  the  humblest  may  feel  without  stint  ; 

And,  lady,  m  asking  this  task  of  my  pen 

I  catch  the  sweet  praise  you  so  gracefully  hint. 

"  There,  General,"  said  the  private,  as  lie  con 
cluded  the  last  line  of  the  last  stanza :  "  That's 
my  idea  of  what  the  madame  meant  by  her 
request.  Everybody  knows  the  Hudson,  while 
nobody  knows  the  *  violens  Aufidus?  Everybody 
understands  your  *  shoot  him  on  the  spot '  order, 
at  the  commencement  of  the  war ;  while  the  merit 
of  having  been  the  first  to  wed  the  '  jEolium 
Carmen  ad  Itaks  modos '  is  something  for  which 
neither  the  madame,  nor  any  sensible  man  or 
woman  in  the  present  day,  can  well  be  imagined 
to  care  a  single  brass  farthing.  At  any  rate," 
added  Miles,  as  he  resumed  the  first  position  of  a 
soldier,  and  saluted  stiffly  before  turning  to  quit 
the  room;  "at  any  rate,  General,  I'm  .willing  to 
leave  it  to  the  madame  herself,  whether  she  doesn't 
like  my  free-and-easy  paraphrase  a  sight  better 
than  your  exact  translation." 

The  madame,  on  having  the  matter  referred  to 
her,  declined  to  express  any  preference — saying, 
indeed,  that  both  were  good  in  their  respective 
ways.  But  it  is  to  be  remarked,  that,  while  the 
General's  lines  live  in  her  album,  where  she  is 
fond  of  showing  them  to  the  initiated,  it  is  her 
habit,  in  telling  the  story,  to  quote  from  memory, 


"NEWS  FROM  PARNASSUS."  77 

and  without  reference  to  the  book,  the  more  lively 
-version  of  the  old  ode  contained  in  O'Keilly's 
paraphrase. 


THE  FALL  OF  RICHMOND. 

TRIUMPH  OF  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY — OUR  ATTI 
TUDE  TO  THE  SOUTH  AND  TO  EUROPE. 

[From  the  New  York  Herald,  April,  1865.] 

.  GENERAL  LEE  has  surrendered !  That  is  the 
news  of  the  hoar — the  supreme  news  of  our  cen 
tury  ;  and  we  have  now  a  moment  to  think 
seriously  and  calmly  on  the  duties  devolved  upon 
us  by  the  termination  of  the  rebellion.  It  is  not 
only  the  privilege  but  the  duty  of  victors  to  be 
generous,  as  by  such  a  course  fresh  laurels  are 
added  to  their  fame,  and  their  ascendancy  is  more 
firmly  established.  A  powerful  people,  who  have 
so  gloriously  attested  a  strength  more  than  ade 
quate  for  every  need,  can  well  afford  to  treat  their 
vanquished  domestic  enemies  with  the  splendid 
leniency  exhibited  in  the  terms  of  surrender  pro 
posed  by  General  Grant  and  accepted  by  General 
Lee,  while  regarding  with  silent  derision,  or  ignor 
ing  altogether,  the  foiled  efforts  and  hopes  of  all 
their  foreign  foes.  Our  great  popular  struggle, 
now  virtually  closed,  finds  us  with  vast  interests 
in  both  sections  of  our  reunited  country  demand 
ing  prompt  attention;  but  with  no  revenges  to 


THE  FALL  OF  RICHMOND.  79 

be  gratified,  nor  any  inclination  to  squander  time 
in  the  costly  luxury  of  obtaining  retribution  for 
bygone  injuries.  Over  the  errors  of  the  South  let 
a  veil  be  thrown  for  ever ;  while  for  the  wrongs 
inflicted  on  us  during  the  past  four  years  by  the 
governments  of  France  and  England  we  can  best 
obtain  satisfaction  by  showing  to  the  oppressed 
populations  of  those  countries  how  superbly  con 
temptuous  of  foreign  interference — how  grandly 
magnanimous  to  the  misled  and  chastened  chil 
dren  of  our  own  household — the  ruling  democracy 
of  this  continent  can  prove  in  their  hour  of  tri 
umph.  It  is  by  an  example  of  the  ever-increasing 
prosperity  and  grandeur  of  our  reunited  country, 
acting  on  the  aspirations,  necessities,  and  impulses 
of  the  French  and  English  masses,  that  the  unwise 
and  unjust  policy  of  their  respective  governments 
in  favor  of  the  now  almost  extinguished  "  con 
federacy n  can  be  most  effectually  punished — these 
governments,  in  their  blind  hatred  and  jealousy 
of  our  free  democratic  system,  having  established 
a  precedent  in  granting  belligerent  rights  to  rebel 
lious  States  which  must  hereafter,  and  before  long, 
prove  fatal  to  their  own  existence.  They,  surely, 
of  all  others — only  existing  by  legitimacy  and 
divine  right — should  have  been  the  last  to  recog 
nize  and  abet  any  insurrection  against  organized 
national  authority ;  and,  least  of  all,  an  insurrec 
tion  against  a  government  so  absolutely  free  and 


80  THE  FALL   OF  KICHMOND. 

equal  to  all  sections  and  classes  as  was,  and  shall 
hereafter  be,  our  own.  If,  for  alleged  wrongs  of 
anticipation  or  frivo]ous  theories  of  pride,  certain 
States  of  our  Union  were  justified  in  rebelling 
against  a  government  under  which  all  had  equal 
rights  and  protection — their  action  receiving  the 
approval  of  the  French  Emperor  and  the  active 
sympathy  of  the  British  aristocracy — how  will  the 
account  stand  when  the  oppressed  French  and 
British  populations  rise  up  against  the  intolerable 
political  oppressions  and  physical  privations  under 
which  they  now  groan,  and  from  which  their  only 
present  hope  of  escape  is  by  emigration  to  this 
generous  land  ? 

The  struggle  we  have  just  brought  to  an  end 
has  not  been  in  the  least  understood  abroad ;  nor, 
indeed,  has  its  full  purport  been  revealed  to  any 
but  the  most  thoughtful  and  far-seeing  of  our  own 
people.  Earl  Russell  declared  it  to  be  "a  contest 
for  independence  by  the  South,  and  for  empire  on 
the  part  of  the  North" — than  which  it  is  impossi 
ble  to  conceive  or  frame  any  statement  of  equal 
brevity  containing  errors  so  gigantic.  Our  strug 
gle  has  not  been  one  for  empire,  nor  even — in  any 
strict  sense — for  the  constitution ;  nor  will  it  be 
found,  when  closely  scrutinized,  a  war  declared  or 
carried  on  by  the  regular  machinery  of  our  govern 
ment  for  the  vindication  of  our  national  authority. 
This  war  has  been  a  people's  war  for  the  mainte- 


THE   FALL  OF  RICHMOND.  81 

nance  and  supremacy  of  the  people's  right  to 
govern  themselves — a  war  as  much  for  the  true 
ultimate  interests  of  the  Southern  as  of  the  North 
ern  people;  and  having  for  its  main  object  to 
reaffirm  and  establish  once  and  for  evermore  that 
the  will  of  the  majority,  peacefully  and  legally 
expressed,  must  and  shall  be  the  supreme  and 
irresistible  power  of  our  whole  country,  to  which 
the  minority  must  peacefully  and  legally  submit, 
or  be  prepared  to  take  the  consequences.  All  will 
remember  that  in  the  early  days  of  Mr.  Lincoln's 
previous  term  his  Secretary  of  State  and  other 
Cabinet  officers  held  grave  question  as  to  the  ex 
pediency  or  even  "  constitutionality"  of  attempting 
to  prevent  by  military  force  the  secession  of  any 
"  sovereign  State"  from  the  Union.  They  fussed 
and  dawdled  over  this  for  more  than  a  month, 
many  prominent  republicans  being  openly  in  favor 
of  an  unresisted  separation.  But  at  last,  by  the 
mad  folly  of  some  few  Southern  leaders,  Fort 
Sumter  was  fired  upon ;  and  then  at  once,  with 
a  magnificent  unanimity,  our  whole  people  arose 
in  their  might,  brushing  aside  as  cobwebs  all 
technical  opposition  to  their  will,  and  fiercely 
demanding  of  the  authorities  they  had  placed  in 
power  arms  and  organization  for  the  re-assertion 
of  the  supremacy  of  the  ballot  over  every  square 
mile,  and  foot,  and  inch  of  their  indivisible  coun 
try.  How  little  the  regular  machinery  of  our 
4* 


82  THE   FALL   OF  KICHMOND. 

government  appreciated  the  gravity  of  that  crisis, 
or  the  intense  earnestness  of  our  people  in  their 
resolve  to  maintain  popular  authority  in  all  sec 
tions,  the  first  ridiculous  call  for  "  seventy-five 
thousand  men  to  serve  three  months"  may  suffi 
ciently  illustrate.  Trained  only  in  the  routine  of 
party  chicane  and  deception,  the  mere  politicians 
who  then  formed  our  so-called  "  governing  class," 
could  not  realize  that  a  call  for  one  million  men  to 
fight,  and,  if  need  were,  all  to  perish  in  this  cause, 
would  have  been  as  instantly  and  fully 'answered. 
And  what  has  been  the  history  of  our  struggle, 
so  fraught  on  both  sides  with  heroic  events,  since 
that  hour  ?  Has  it  not  been,  on  the  part  of  the 
North,  one  continual  pushing  forward  of  our  lag 
gard  and  hesitating  authorities  by  the  accumulat 
ing  forces  of  the  public  will  ?  All  former  cal 
culations  of  finance  have  been  set  at  defiance  by 
the  lavish  promptness  of  the  great  masses  of  our 
people  in  supporting  the  national  credit.  All  the 
generals  given  to  us  by  Government  in  the  early 
days  of  our  struggle  proved  failures,  and  not  one 
of  them  is  now  in  eminent  command.  It  was  our 
people  who  furnished  the  fighting  material  of  our 
campaigns  by  volunteering — for  the  "  draft  " 
proved  a,s  abortive  a  measure  as  all  the  other  spe 
cial  agencies  of  our  government ;  and  when  the 
soldiers  were  thus  brought  together  in  vast  fami 
lies  of  armies,  it  was  they — armed  children  of  the 


THE   FALL   OF  RICHMOND.  83 

people,  on  behalf  of  the  people — who  discovered 
and  raised  to  command  their  proper  generals. 
Grant— our  own  glorious  and  victorious  Grant, 
whose  name  will  live  in  history  as  one  of  the 
world's  noblest  soldiers — Grant,  we  say,  joined  the 
volunteers  of  Illinois  as  the  Captain  of  a  company 
of  infantry ;  and  the  only  direct  action  of  the 
government  in  his  case  was  an  order  to  remove 
him  from  command  just  previous  to  his  capture 
of  Fort  Donelson — an  event  which  retained  him 
in  the  service  to  become,  as  he  is  to-day,  the  mili 
tary  savior  of  his  country.  Sherman  declared,  in 
the  first  year  of  the  rebellion,  that  he  would 
require  two  hundred  thousand  men  for  the  opera 
tions  which,  even  at  that  early  day,  fell  within 
the  scope  of  his  far-seeing  genius ;  and  forthwith 
he  was  relieved  and  pronounced  insane  by  Mr. 
Secretary  Cameron.  What  part  had  the  govern 
ment  proper  in  Sheridan's  elevation — the  match 
less  worth  of  our  greatest  cavalry  leader  having 
first  been  discovered  by  the  troops  who  fought 
under  him,  and  the  successes  they  enabled  him  to 
achieve  compelling  his  recognition  by  the  author 
ities.  It  is  of  public  record  that  it  was  in  con 
templation  to  remove  General  Thomas  during  the 
very  hottest  hours  of  the  contest  which  hurled 
back  into  Alabama  the  shattered  divisions  of 
Hood ;  and,  if  we  chose  to  extend  this  article, 
and  enter  upon  details,  it  might,  we  think,  be 


84  THE   FALL   OF   RICHMOND. 

demonstrated  that  in  no  single  case  has  a  military 
officer,  originally  selected  for  high  command  by 
our  government,  proved  equal  to  the  responsi 
bilities  of  his  position.  It  was  our  people  who 
furnished  the  armies,  and  the  armies  then  selected 
their  own  commanders — the  Lieutenant-General 
himself  having  been  imposed  upon  the  Govern 
ment  by  a  vote  which  the  voice  of  the  army  com 
pelled  the  elected  representatives  of  the  people  to 
cast  in  favor  of  their  most  trusted  chief.  It  is  the 
people,  also,  who  have  furnished  all  the  requisite 
finances,  material,  resources,  and  powers  for  the 
conflict,  their  indestructible  faith  in  the  final  tri 
umph  of  popular  institutions  overcoming  every 
obstacle,  and  even  defying  the  worst  mismanage 
ment  of  Secretary  Chase  to  bankrupt  a  treasury 
which  had  its  best  basis  in  their  unfaltering 
resolve. 

To  the  people,  therefore,  and  to  our  gallant 
armies — headed  by  Stanton,  Grant,  Sherman, 
Sheridan,  and  their  brave  associates — all  the 
glory  of  the  present  moment  belongs ;  and  it 
should  properly  be  left  with  them  to  decide  on 
what  terms  of  permanent  pacification  the  van 
quished  in  this  contest  are  to  be  reaccepted  as 
citizens  of  the  Union,  That  those  terms  will  be 
generous,  we  are  well  assured ;  for  our  armies  are 
true  representatives  of  the  people,  and  the  Ame 
ricans  are  a  most  generous  people ;  while,  as  to 


THE   FALL  OF  EICHMOND.  85 

the  injuries  inflicted  upon  us  in  the  earlier  days 
of  our  struggle  by  the  failure  of  the  English  and 
French  governments  to  carry  out  their  treaty 
obligations  with  a  friendly  government,  and  to 
enforce  the  law  of  nations  in  our  interest,  we  can 
well  afford — as  before  remarked — to  leave  time 
and  the  powerful  example  of  our  success  to  bring 
about  a  day  of  reckoning  for  their  conduct.  If 
Ireland,  for  instance,  should  again  rebel — as 
Ireland  has  had  a  habit  of  doing  for  six  hundred 
years — with  what  face  could  the  British  govern 
ment  ask  us  to  prevent  the  Fenian  Brotherhood, 
for  example,  from  sending  over  arms  and  muni 
tions  of  war  for  one  or  two  hundred  thousand 
men,  with  from  five  to  seven  thousand  veteran 
soldiers  and  officers,  trained  in  our  battles  of  the 
past  four  years,  and  only  panting  to  assist  in 
organizing  on  Irish  soil  the  inchoate  valor  and 
sinew  of  an  Irish  army  ?  Or  what  plea  could  the 
French  Emperor  advance  against  our  recognizing 
whatever  popular  movement  may  hereafter  make 
head  against  his  throne,  or  the  throne  of  his  Mexi 
can  protege,  in  case  the  soldiers  of  General  Lee 
should  see  fit  to  emigrate  in  that  direction  ^  or  the 
selling  and  sending  by  our  merchants  of  armed 
ships  and  all  the  munitions  of  "  belligerency"  to 
any  country  or  people  with  which  either  he  or 
Maximilian  of  Mexico  shall  hereafter  be  engaged 
in  hostilities?  Our  surest  mode  of  securing  satis- 


86  THE   FALL   OF  RICHMOND. 

faction  and  indemnity  for  all  wrongs  we  have 
received  from  Europe,  will  be  in  our  reunited 
capacity  to  become  hourly  and  daily  more  pros 
perous,  beneficent,  and  powerful  under  our  popu 
lar  institutions,  thus  setting  before  the  oppressed 
masses  of  France  and  England  a  bright  example 
and  beacon,  of  which  the  proletarian  elements  in 
both  countries  will  not  be  slow  to  take  advantage. 
The  elder  Napoleon  spoke  a  most  serious  and 
solemn  truth  when  he  declared  that  within  fifty 
years  from  his  death  "  all  Europe  must  be  Cos 
sack  or  republican."  The  triumph  of  the  Ameri 
can  democracy  in  this  war  for  the  supremacy  of 
the  institutions  under  which  all  our  previous  pro 
gress  has  been  achieved,  is  an  assurance  that  his 
prophecy  will  be  fulfilled ;  and  not  in  the  Cossack 
alternative.  Less  than  a  year  ago  the  popular 
assertion  of  American  self-knowledge,  which  took 
shape  in  the  phrase  "  We  are  a  great  people,"  fur 
nished  a  continual  theme  of  sneering  laughter  to 
all  the  malignant  tory  journalists  and  bitter  impe 
rialistic  wits  of  London  and  Paris.  What  have 
these  gentlemen  now  to  say  as  they  read  the  intel 
ligence  of  the  fall  of  the  rebel  capital  ? 

But  a  triumph  so  great  as  the  fall  of  Eichmond 
and  the  surrender  of  Gen.  Lee,  surely  deserves  to 
be  preserved  in  song.  We  therefore  copy  from 
the  editorial  page  of  the  Tribune,  dated  April  3d, 
1865,  the  following  lines  from  the  Bard  of  the 


THE  FALL  OF  RICHMOND.  87 

Old   Tenth   Army   Corps,  written   the   previous 
evening  on  receipt  of  the  glorious  news : 

THE  FALL  OF  RICHMOND ;  OR,  "  THE  DAY  WE 
CELEBRATE." 

Bad  luck  to  the  man  who  is  sober  to-night ! 

He's  a  could-blooded  bodhagh  or  saycret  Secesher, 
Whose  heart  for  the  Ould  Flag  has  niver  been  right, 

An'  who  takes  in  the  fame  of  his  counthry  no  pleasure. 
Och,  murther  !  will  none  o'  yez  hould  me,  me  dears  ! 

Or  'tis  out  o'  me  shkin  wid  delight  I'll  be  jumpin'  ,* 
Wid  me  eyes  shwimmin'  round  in  the  happiest  tears, 

An1  the  heart  in  me  breasht  like  a  pistin-rod  thumpin' ! 

Musha,  glory  to  God !  for  the  news  you  have  sint, 

Wid  your  own  party  fist,  Misther  President  Linkin ! 
An'  may  God  be  around  both  the  bed  an'  the  tint 

Where  our  bully  boy  Grant  does  his  atin'  an'  thinkin' ! 
Even  Shtanton,  to-night,  we'll  consade  he  was  right, 

Whin  he  played  the  ould  scratch  wid  our  Have-you-his- 

carJciss  ; 
An'  to  gallant  Phil  Sherry  we'll  dhrink  wid  delight, 

On  whose  bright  plume  o'  fame  not  a  shpot  o'  the  dark 
is! 

Let  the  chapels  be  opened,  the  althars  illumed, 

An'  the  mad  bells  ring  out  from  aich  turret  an'  shteeple ; 
Let  the  chancels  wid  flowers  be  adorned  an'  perfumed ; 
While  the  /Sogarths — God  bless  'em !  give  thanks  for  the 

people ! 

For  the  city  is  ours  that  we  sought  from  the  shtart, 
An'  our  boys  through  its  sthreets  "  Hail  Columbia"  are 
yeUin' ; 


88  THE  FALL  OF  RICHMOND. 

An'  there's  Payee  in  the  air,  an'  there's  pride  in  the  heart, 
An'  our  Flag  has  a  fame  that  no  tongue  can  be  tellin' ! 

To  the  dioul  wid  the  shoddy-conthractors  an'  all 

Them  goold  speculathors,  whose  pie  is  now  "humble"  ! 
The  cost  o'  beef,  praties,  an'  whishky  will  fall, 

An'  what  more  could  we  ax — for  the  rints  too  will  tum 
ble? 
On  the  boys  who  survive,  fame  an'  pinsions  we'll  press, 

Every  orphan  the  war's  med,  a  home  we'll  decree  it ; 
An'  aich  soldier's  young  sweetheart  shall  have  a  new  dhress, 

That  will  tickle  her  hayro,  returnin',  to  see  it ! 

0,  land  o'  thrue  freedom  1  0,  land  of  our  love, 

Wid  your  ginerous  welcome  to  all  who  but  seek  it ; 
May  your  stars  shine  as  long  as  the  twinklers  above 

An'  your  fame  be  so  grand  that  no  mortial  can  shpeak 

it! 
All  the  winds  o'  the  world  as  around  us  they  blow, 

No  banner  so  glorious  can  wake  into  .motion  ; 
An'  wid  Payee  in  our  own  land,  you  know  we  may  go, 

Just  to  settle  some  thriflin'  accounts  o'er  the  ocean ! 

So  come,  me  own  Eileen !  come  Nora  an'  Kate, 

Come  Michael  an'  Pat,  all  your  Sunday  duds  carry ; 
We'll  give  thanks  in  the  chapel,  an'  do  it  in  shtate, 

An'  we'll  pray  for  the  sowls  o'  poor  Murtagh  an'  Larry  ; 
Woe's  me !  in  the  black  shwamps  before  it  they  shleep, 

But  the  good  Q-od  to-night — whose  thrue  faith  they  have 

cherished — 
His  angels  will  send  o'er  the  red  fields  a-shweep, 

In  aich  cowld  ear  to  braithe — "  Not  in  vain  have  you 
perished !" 


THE   FALL  OF  RICHMOND.  89 

So  bad  luck  to  the  man  who  is  sober  to-night! 

He's  a  cowld-blooded  bodhagh  or  saycret  Secesher, 
Whose  heart  for  the  Ould  Flag  has  niver  been  right, 

An'  who  takes  in  the  fame  of  his  counthry  no  pleasure  ! 
Och,  murther !  will  none  o'  yez  hould  me,  me  dears  I 

For  'tis  out  o'  me  shkin,  I'm  afeard,  I'll  be  jumpin' ; 
Wid  me  eyes  shwimmin'  round  in  the  happiest  tears, 

An'  the  heart  in  me  breasht  like  a  pistin-rod  thumpin' ! 


THE  G-EEAT  CRIME. 

ABRAHAM   LINCOLN'S    PLACE   IN   HISTORY. 
[From  the  New  York  Herald,  April  17,  1865.] 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN,  in  the  full  fruition  of  his 
glorious  work,  has  been  struck  from  the  roll  of 
living  men  by  the  pistol-shot  of  an  assassin.  That 
is  the  unwelcome  news  which  has,  for  the  last  two 
days,  filled  every  loyal  heart  with  sadness,  horror, 
and  a  burning  thirst  for  retribution.  That  is  the 
news  which  has  swept  away  from  the  public  mind 
every  sentiment  of  leniency  or  conciliation  towards 
the  conquered  brigands  of  the  South,  and  in  whose 
lurid  light,  as  by  the  phosphorescent  flames 
recently  enkindled  in  the  crowded  hotels  of  this 
city  by  men  with  rebel  commissions  in  their 
pockets,  we  are  again  terribly  reminded  of  the 
absolute  barbarity  and  utter  devilishness  of  the 
foeman  we  have  now  tightly  clutched  in  our  vic 
torious  grasp.  The  kindliest  and  purest  nature, 
the  bravest  and  most  honest  will,  the  temper  of 
highest  geniality,  and  the  spirit  of  largest  prac 
tical  beneficence  in  our  public  life,  has  fallen  a 
victim  to  the  insane  ferocity  of  a  bad  and  mad 
vagabond,  who  had  been  educated  up  to  this  height 
of  crime  by  the  teachings  of  our  copperhead  ora- 


THE  GREAT  CRIME.  91 

cles,  and  by  the  ambition  of  fulfilling  those  instruc 
tions  which  he  received  "  from  Richmond."  Of 
him,  however,  and  the  bitter  fruits  to  the  South 
and  to  all  Southern  sympathizers  which  must  fol 
low  his  act  as  inevitably  as  the  thunder-storm 
follows  the  lightning  flash,  we  do  not  care  in  this 
moment  of  benumbing  regret  and  overwhelming 
excitement  to  allow  ourselves  to  speak.  The  deli 
berations  of  justice  must  be  held  in  some  calmer 
hour  ;  while,  for  the  present,  we  can  but  throw 
out  some  few  hurried  reflections  on  the  character 
of  the  giant  who  has  been  lost  to  our  Israel,  and 
the  glorious  place  in  history  his  name  is  destined 
to  occupy. 

Whatever  judgment  may  have  been  formed  by 
those  who  were  opposed  to  him  as  to  the  calibre 
of  our  deceased  Chief  Magistrate,  or  the  place  he 
is  destined  to  occupy  in  history,  all  men  of  undis 
turbed  observation  must  have  recognised  in  Mi*. 
Lincoln  a  quaintness,  originality,  courage,  honesty, 
magnanimity,  and  popular  force  of  character  such 
as  have  never  heretofore,  in  the  annals  of  the 
human  family,  had  the  advantage  of  so  eminent  a 
stage  for  their  display.  He  was  essentially  a 
mixed  product  of  the  agricultural,  forensic,  and 
frontier  life  of  this  continent — as  indigenous  to  our 
soil  as  the  cranberry  crop,  and  as  American  in  his 
fibre  as  the  granite  foundations  of  the  Apalachian 
range.  He  may  not  have  been,  and  perhaps  was 


92  THE   GREAT  CRIME. 

not,  our  most  perfect  product  in  any  one  branch 
of  mental  or  moral  education  ;  but,  taking  him  for 
all  in  all,  the  very  noblest  impulses,  peculiarities, 
and  aspirations  of  our  whole  people — what  may 
be  called  our  continental  idiosyncrasies — were 
more  collectively  and  vividly  reproduced  in  his 
genial  and  yet  unswerving  nature  than  in  that  of 
any  other  public  man  of  whom  our  chronicles 
bear  record. 

If  the  influence  of  the  triumph  of  popular  insti 
tutions  in  our  recent  struggle  prove  so  great  over 
the  future  destiny  of  all  European  nations  as  we 
expect  it  must,  Mr.  Lincoln  will  stand  in  the 
world's  history,  and  receive  its  judgment,  as  the 
type-man  of  a  new  dynasty  of  nation-rulers — not 
for  this  country  alone,  but  for  the  whole  civilized 
portion  of  the  human  family.  He  will  take  his 
place  in  a  sphere  far  higher  than  that  accorded  to 
any  mere  conqueror  ;  and,  indeed,  without  speak 
ing  profanely,  we  may  well  say  that,  since  the 
foundation  of  the  Christian  era,  no  more  remarka 
ble  or  pregnant  passages  of  the  world's  history 
have  been  unfolded  than  those  of  which  Mr.  Lin 
coln  on  this  continent  has  been  the  central  figure 
and  controlling  influence.  It  is  by  this  measure 
ment  he  will  be  judged,  and  by  this  standard  will 
his  place  be  assigned  to  him.  Under  his  rule  our 
self-governing  experiment  has  become,  within  the 
past  four  years,  a  demonstration  of  universal  sig- 


THE  GREAT  CRIME.  93 

nificance  that  the  best  and  strongest  rule  for  every 
intelligent  people  is  a  government  to  be  created 
by  the  popular  will,  and  choosing  for  itself  the 
representative  instrument  who  is  to  carry  out  its 
purposes.  Four  years  ago  it  appeared  an  even 
chance  whether  Europe,  for  the  next  century  at 
least,  should  gravitate  towards  democracy  or 
Csesarism.  Louis  Napoleon  was  weak  enough  to 
hope  the  latter,  and  has  destroyed  himself  by  the 
folly  of  giving  his  hope  expression.  The  triumph 
of  the  democratic  principle  over  the  aristocratic  in 
our  recent  contest  is  an  assurance  that  time  has 
revolved  this  old  earth  on  which  we  live  into  a 
new  and  perhaps  happier — perhaps  sadder — era ; 
and  Jefferson  Davis,  with  his  subordinate  conspi 
rators,  flying  from  their  capital  before  the  armed 
hosts  of  the  Nation  which  had  elected  and  re-elected 
Abraham  Lincoln,  may  be  regarded  as  a  transfi 
guration  of  imperialism,  with  its  satellite  aristo 
cracies,  throwing  down  the  fragments  of  a  broken 
sceptre  at  the  feet  of  our  American — the  demo 
cratic — principle  of  self-rule. 

The  patriarchal  system  of  government  was,  we 
may  presume,  as  simple  as  the  lives  of  those  over 
whom  it  was  exercised,  and  has  left  but  very  im 
perfect  traces  of  its  existence.  Of  the  theocratic 
or  priestly  form  of  government,  we  have  had 
types  in  the  characters  of  Moses  and  Mohammed 
— both  powerful  and  original  men,  and  true  repre- 


94  THE   GREAT   CRIME. 

sentatives  of  the  ambitions,  needs,  and  poetically 
superstitious  temperaments  of  the  nations  they  re 
spectively  ruled.  With  Eome  came  the  full  deve 
lopment  of  the  imperial  system,  based  on  military 
subjugation  and  absorption ;  the  system  which 
Louis  Napoleon  believes  is^bout  being  revived — 
wholly  oblivious,  apparently,  that  his  volume  of 
moody  and  fantastic  dreams  is  printed  on  a  steam 
press,  and  not  copied  painfully  from  waxen  tablets, 
as  were  the  memoirs  of  Julius  Caesar,  by  the 
stylus  of  a  single  copyist.  With  the  spread  of 
Catholicity  came  the  feudal  system,  of  which 
Charlemagne  was  but  an  accident  and  by.  no 
means  the  creator — that  system  having  been  a 
necessity  for  the  perpetuation  of  Church  property 
and  the  protection  of  the  non-belligerent  religious 
Orders.  With  the  discovery  of  printing,  imme 
diately  followed  by  Luther's  insurrectionary  up 
heaval  in  the  religious  world,  commenced  the 
mental  and  moral  preparation  of  mankind  for  the 
acceptance  of  popular  institutions  and  the  right 
of  self-government — in  a  word,  for  the  democratic 
principle  of  which  Cromwell  was  the  first  forcible 
expression,  and  Napoleon  Bonaparte,  in  his  earlier 
triumphs  over  kings  and  empires,  the  armed  and 
irresistible  assertion.  False  to  the  ideas  which 
caused  his  elevation,  this  Napoleon  was  hurled 
from  the  throne  he  sought  to  build  on  the  ruins 
and  with  the  materials  of  prostrate  popular  liber- 


THE   GREAT  CRIME.  95 

ty  ;  and  it  was  thus  reserved  by  an  All-wise  Pro 
vidence  for  this  latest  found  of  the  continents  of 
our  earth,  to  give  the  first  successful  example  of 
that  truly  popular  system  of  government — soon 
to  be  in  control  of  all  nationalities — which  had 
the  moral  sublimity  and  practical  virtues  of  George 
Washington  to  guide  it  through  its  experimental 
stage ;  and  the  perhaps  externally  grotesque,  but 
morally  magnificent,  figure  of  Abraham  Lincoln 
to  be  both  its  representative  and  martyr  in  the 
present  supreme  moment  of  its  permanent  crown 
ing. 

This  estimate  of  the  place  inevitably  to  be 
occupied  in  the  world's  history  by  the  great  Na 
tional  Chief  whose  loss  we  mourn  may  not  prove 
either  a  familiar  or  pleasant  idea  for  the  mere  par 
tisans  of  the  present  day  to  contemplate ;  but  it 
will  be  found  none  the  less  a  true  and  philosophi 
cal  estimate.  In  the  retrospective  glance  of  his 
tory  the  "  accidents,"  as  they  are  called,  of  his 
elevation  will  all  have  faded  out  of  sight ;  and  the 
pen  of  the  historian  will  only  chronicle  some  such 
record  as  the  following : — From  the  very  humblest 
position  in  a  family  subsisting  by  agricultural 
labor,  and  himself  toiling  for  daily  bread  in  his 
early  youth,  this  extraordinary  man,  by  the  gifts 
of  self-education,  absolute  honesty  of  purpose, 
perfect  sympathy  with  the  popular  heart,  and  great 
natural  endowments,  first  rose  to  eminence  as  a 


%  THE   GREAT  CRIME. 

lawyer ;  then  graduated  in  Congress ;  was  next 
heard  of  as  the  powerful  though  unsuccessful 
rival  for  national  Senatorial  honors  of  the  demo 
cratic  candidate  for  the  Presidency,  over  whom  he 
subsequently  triumphed  in  1860 ;  and  four  years 
later  we  find  him,  in  the  midst  of  overwhelming 
financial  embarrassments,  and  during  the  uncer 
tain  progress  of  the  bloodiest  and  most  desolating 
civil  war  ever  waged,  so  completely  retaining  the 
confidence  of  the  American  people  as  to  be  trium 
phantly  reflected  to  the  first  office  in  their  gift. 
They  will  claim  for  him  all  the  moral  influences, 
which — acting  through  material  forces  and  agen 
cies — have  led  to  the  abolition  of  slavery,  and  the 
permanent  enthroning  of  popular  institutions  on 
this  continent ;  and,  in  their  general  summing  up 
of  this  now  unappreciated  age  in  which  we  have 
our  feverish  being,  and  in  their  pictures  of  those 
events  wherein  the  clamorous  partisans  of  the  past 
week  were  prone  to  urge  that  Mr.  Lincoln  had 
been  but  a  passive  instrument,  his  name  and  figure 
will  be  brought  forward  in  glowing  colors  on  their 
canvass,  as  the  chief  impelling  power  and  central 
organizer  of  the  vast  results  which  cannot  fail  to 
follow  our  vindication  of  the  popular  form  of 
government. 

And  surely  some  hundred  years  hence,  when 
the  staid  and  scholarly  disciples  of  the  historic 
Muse  bring  their  grave  eyes  to  scan,  and  their 


THE   GREAT  CRIME.  97 

brief  tape-lines  to  measure  the  altitude  and  atti 
tude,  properties,  and  proportions  of  our  deceased 
Chief  Magistrate,  their  surprise — taking  them  to 
be  historians  of  the  present  time — will  be  intense 
beyond  expression.  It  has  been  for  centuries  the 
tradition  of  their  tribe  to  model  every  public  cha 
racter  after  the  style  of  the  heroic  antique.  Their 
nation-founders,  warriors,  and  lawmakers  have 
been  invariably  clad  in  flowing  togas,  crowned  with 
laurel  or  oak  wreaths,  and  carrying  papyrus  rolls 
or  the  batons  of  empire  in  their  outstretched 
hands.  How  can  men  so  educated — these  poor, 
dwarfed  ransackers  of  the  past,  who  have  always 
regarded  greatness  in  this  illusory  aspect — ever  be 
brought  to  comprehend  the  genius  of  a  character 
so  externally  uncouth,  so  pathetically  simple,  so 
unfathomably  penetrating,  so  irresolute,  and  yet 
so  irresistible,  so  bizarre,  grotesque,  droll,  wise,  and 
perfectly  beneficent  in  all  its  developments  as  was 
that  of  the  great  original  thinker  and  statesman 
for  whose  death  the  whole  land,  even  in  the  midst 
of  victories  unparalleled,  is  to-day  draped  in 
mourning?  It  will  require  an  altogether  new 
breed  and  school  of  historians  to  begin  doing  jus 
tice  to  this  type-man  of  the  world's  last  political 
evangel.  Ko  ponderously  eloquent  George  Ban 
croft  can  properly  rehearse  those  inimitable  stories 
by  which,  in  the  light  form  of  allegory,  our  mar 
tyred  President  has  so  frequently  and  so  wisely 


98  THE   GREAT  CRIME. 

decided  the  knottiest  controversies  of  his  Cabinet ; 
nor  can  even  the  genius  of  a  Washington  Irving 
or  Edward  Everett,  in  some  future  age,  elocutionize 
into  the  formal  dignity  of  a  Greek  statue  the 
kindly  but  powerful  face  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  seamed 
in  circles  by  humorous  thoughts  and  furrowed 
crosswise  by  mighty  anxieties.  It  will  take  a  new 
school  of  historians  to  do  j  ustice  to  this  eccentric 
addition  to  the  world's  gallery  of  heroes  ;  for  while 
other  men  as  interesting  and  original  may  have 
held  equal  power  previously  in  other  countries,  it 
is  only  in  the  present  age  of  steam,  telegraphs, 
and  prying  newspaper  reporters  that  a  subject  so 
eminent,  both  by  genius  and  position,  could  have 
been  placed  under  the  eternal  microscope  of  criti 
cal  examination. 

As  to  the  immediate  effect  of  Mr.  Lincoln's 
death,  our  institutions  are  fortunately  of  a  charac 
ter  not  depending  on  the  life  of  any  individual  for 
their  maintenance  or  progress.  We  shall  miss  his 
wise  guidance  and  the  radiations  of  that  splendid 
wit  which  has  illumined  so  many  of  our  darkest 
hours  during  the  past  four  years  of  struggle.  We 
shall  for  ever  execrate  "  the  deep  damnation  of 
his  taking  off,"  and  may  doubtless — for  we  are 
but  human — more  rigorously  press  upon  the  van 
quished  in  this  contest  who  have  been  prompters 
of  the  bloody  deed  the  full  penalties  of  their  hein 
ous  crimes.  Nevertheless  the  progress  of  the 


THE  GKEAT  CRIME.  99 

American  government  is  upward  and  onward, 
casting  flowers  as  it  passes  upon  the  grave  of  each 
new  martyr,  but  never  halting  in  the  march  of  its 
divine  and  irresistible  mission.  In  Vice-President 
Andrew  Johnson — henceforward  President  of  the 
United  States — we  have  a  man  of  similar  origin 
with  Mr.  Lincoln ;  equally  a  child  of  the  people, 
equally  in  sympathy  with  their  instincts,  and  per 
haps  better  informed  as  to  the  true  condition  and 
governmental  necessities  of  the  Southern  States. 
Self-educated,  and  raised  by  personal  worth 
through  years  of  laborious  industry  and  sacrifice, 
no  accident  of  a  moment  can  be  accepted  by  the 
judgment  of  our  people  as  reversing  Mr.  John 
son's  claims  to  the  confidence  and  respect  of  the 
country.  In  Secretary  Stanton  and  General 
Grant  he  has  two  potent  and  reliable  advisers,  who 
will  give  the  first  steps  of  his  administration  such 
wise  support  and  guidance  as  they  may  need ;  and 
while  we  all  must  mourn  with  sad  and  sickened 
hearts  the  success  of  the  great  crime  which  has 
removed  our  beloved  and  trusted  President  from 
the  final  scenes  of  the  contest  he  had  thus  far  con 
ducted  to  a  triumphant  issue,  let  us  not  forget  that 
by  the  circumstance  of  death  the  seal  of  immor 
tality  has  been  stamped  upon  his  fame  ;  nor  is  it 
any  longer  in  the  power  of  changing  fortune  to 
take  away  from  him,  as  might  have  happened  had 
he  lived,  one  of  the  most  solid,  brilliant,  and 


100  THE   GREAT  CRIME. 

stainless  reputations  of  which  in  the  world's 
annals  any  record  can  be  found — its  only  peer 
existing  in  the  memory  of  George  Washington. 

And  now  we  feel  that  we  cannot  better  conclude 
this  saddest  article  we  have  ever  penned,  than  by 
laying  before  our  readers  the  following  simple  but 
earnestly  felt  lines,  suggested  by  the  first  rude 
shock  of  our  national  bereavement.  They  aspire 
to  no  other  merit  than  a  faithful  rendering  of  the 
popular  estimate  in  which  Mr.  Lincoln's  character 
was  held : 

THE   LOST    CHIEF. 

He  filled  the  Nation's  eye  and  heart, 

A  loved,  familiar,  honored  name, 

So  much  a  brother,  that  his  fame 
Seemed  of  our  lives  a  common  part. 

His  towering  figure,  sharp  and  spare, 
Was  with  such  nervous  tension  strung, 
As  if  on  each  strained  sinew  swung 

The  burden  of  a  people's  care. 

His  changing  face  what  pen  can  draw, 
Pathetic,  kindly,  droll  or  stern, 
And  with  a  glance  so  quick  to  learn 

The  inmost  truth  of  all  he  saw. 

Pride  found  no  idle  space  to  spawn 

Her  fancies  in  his  busy  mind ; 

His  worth,  like  health  or  air,  could  find 
No  just  appraisal  till  withdrawn. 


THE  GREAT  CfclSSlC  :  ;    101 


He  was  his  Country's,  not  his  own, 
And  had  no  wish  but  for  her  weal  ; 
Nor  for  himself  could  think  or  feel 

But  as  a  laborer  for  her  throne. 

Her  flag  upon  the  heights  of  power, 
Stainless  and  unassailed  to  place  — 
To  this  one  aim  his  earnest  face 

Was  bent  through  every  burdened  hour. 

The  veil  that  hides  from  our  dull  eyes 
A  hero's  worth,  Death  only  lifts; 
"While  he  i?  with  us,  all  his  gifts 

Find  hosts  to  question,  few  to  prize. 

But  done  the  battle,  won  the  strife, 
When  torches  light  his  vaulted  tomb, 
Broad  gems  flash  out  and  crowns  illume 

The  clay-cold  brows  undecked  in  life. 

And  men  of  whom  the  world  will  talk 
For  ages  hence,  may  noteless  move, 
And  only,  as  they  quit  us,  prove 

That  giant  souls  have  shared  our  walk  : 

For  Heaven—  aware  what  follies  lurk 
In  our  weak  hearts  —  their  mission  done, 
Snatches  her  loved  ones  from  the  sun 

In  the  same  hour  that  crowns  their  work. 

O,  loved  and  lost  !     Thy  patient  toil 
Had  robed  our  cause  in  Victory's  light, 
Our  country  stood  redeemed  and  bright, 

With  not  a  slave  on  all  her  soil. 


19.2  .THE   GREAT  CRIME. 

Again  o'er  Southern  towns  and  towers 
The  eagles  of  our  Nation  flew ; 
And  as  the  weeks  to  Summer  grew 

Each  day  a  new  success  was  ours. 

'Mid  peals  of  bells,  and  cannon  bark, 
And  shouting  streets  with  flags  abloom, 
Sped  the  shrill  arrow  of  thy  doom, 

And,  in  an  instant,  all  was  dark ! 

Thick  clouds  around  us  seem  to  press ; 

The  heart  throbs  wildly — then  is  still ; 

Father,  'tis  hard  to  say,  "  Thy  will 
Be  done!"  in  such  an  hour  as  this. 

A  martyr  to  the  cause  of  man, 
His  blood  is  freedom's  eucharist, 
And  in  the  world's  great  hero-li-t 

His  name  shall  lead  the  van  ! 

Yea !  raised  on  Faith's  whits  wings,  unfurled 
In  heaven's  pure  light,  of  him  we  say : 
"  He  fell  upon  the  self-same  day 

A  Greater  died  to  save  the  world." 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  MR.  LINCOLN. 

A  VERY  CURIOUS  CONVERSATION  I  WHAT  HE  THOUGHT 
ABOUT  CONSPIRACIES  TO  ASSASSINATE  HIM,  THREE 
YEARS  AGO. 

IN  the  fall  of  1862  the  writer  of  this  article, 
being  then  a  member  of  the  staff  of  General  Hal- 
leek,  had  frequent  occasion  to  wait  upon  our 
recently  deceased  President,  both  during  official 
hours  and  at  other  times. 

Once — on  what  was  called  "a  public  day," 
when  Mr.  Lincoln  received  all  applicants  in  their 
turn — the  writer  was  much  struck  by  observing, 
as  he  passed  through  the  corridor,  the  heteroge 
neous  crowd  of  men  and  women,  representing  all 
ranks  and  classes,  who  were  gathered  in  the  large 
waiting-room  outside  the  presidential  suite  of 
offices. 

Being  ushered  into  the  President's  chamber  by 
Major  Hay,  the  first  thing  he  saw  was  Mr.  Lincoln 
bowing  an  elderly  lady  out  of  the  door — the 
President's  remarks  to  her  being,  as  she  still  lin 
gered  and  appeared  reluctant  to  go :  "I  am 
really  very  sorry,  madam ;  very  sorry.  But  your 
own  good  sense  must  tell  you  that  I  am  not  here 


104  KECOLLECTIONS  OF   MR.    LINCOLN. 

to  collect  small  debts.     You  must  appeal  to  the 
courts  in  regular  order." 

When  she  was  gone  Mr.  Lincoln  sat  down, 
crossed  his  legs,  locked  his  hands  over  his  knees, 
and  commenced  to  laugh — this  being  his  favorite 
attitude  when  much  amused. 

"  What  odd  kinds  of  people  come  in  to  see  me," 
he  said ;  "  and  what  odd  ideas  they  must  have 
about  my  office !  Would  you  believe,  Major,  that 
the  old  lady  who  has  just  left  came  in  here  to  get 
from  me  an  order  for  stopping  the  pay  of  a  Trea 
sury  clerk,  who  owes  her  a  board-bill  of  about 
seventy  dollars  ?"  And  the  President  rocked  him 
self  backward  and  forward,  and  appeared  intensely 
amused. 

"  She  may  have  come  in  here  a  loyal  woman," 
continued  Mr.  Lincoln;  "but  I'll  be  bound  she 
has  gone  away  believing  that  the  worst  pictures 
of  me  in  the  Richmond  press  only  lack  truth  in 
not  being  half  black  and  bad  enough." 

This  led  to  a  somewhat  general  conversation,  in 
which  I  expressed  surprise  that  he  did  not  adopt 
the  plan  in  force  at  all  military  headquarters, 
under  which  every  applicant  to  see  the  General 
Commanding  had  to  be  filtered  through  a  sieve  of 
officers — assistant  adjutant-generals,  and  so  forth; 
who  allowed  none  in  to  take  up  the  general's  time 
save  such  as  they  were  satisfied  had  business  of 
sufficient  importance,  and  which  could  be  trans- 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  MR.  LINCOLN.    105 

acted  in  no  other  manner  than  by  a  personal 
interview. 

u  Of  every  hundred  people  who  come  to  see 
the  General-in-chief  daily,"  I  explained,  "  not  ten 
have  any  sufficient  business  with  him,  nor  are  they 
admitted.  On  being  asked  to  explain  for  what 
purpose  they  desire  to  see  him,  and  stating  it,  it  is 
found,  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  that  the  business 
properly  belongs  to  some  one  or  other  of  the  sub 
ordinate  bureaux.  They  are  then  referred,  as  the 
case  may  be,  to  the  quartermaster,  commissary, 
medical,  adjutant-general,  or  other  departments, 
with  an  assurance  that — even  if  they  saw  the 
General-in-chief — he  could  do  nothing  more  for 
them  than  give  them  the  same  direction.  "With 
these  points  courteously  explained,"  I  added, 
"  they  go  away  quite  content,  although  refused 
admittance." 

"  Ah,  yes !"  said  Mr.  Lincoln,  gravely — and  his 
words  on  this  matter  are  important  as  illustrating 
a  rule  of  his  action,  and  to  some  extent,  perhaps, 
the  essentially  representative  character  of  his 
mind  and  of  his  administration  :  "Ah,  yes!  such 
things  do  very  well  for  you  military  people,  with 
your  arbitrary  rule,  and  in  your  camps.  But  the 
office  of  President  is  essentially  a  civil  one,  and 
the  affair  is  very  different.  For  myself,  I  feel — 
though  the  tax  on  my  time  is  heavy — that  no 
hours  of  my  day  are  better  employed  than  those 
5* 


106  RECOLLECTIONS  OF  MR.   LINCOLN. 

which  thus  bring  me  again  withm  the  direct  con 
tact  and  atmosphere  of  the  average  of  our  whole 
people.  Men  moving  only  in  an  official  circle  are 
apt  to  become  merely  official — not  to  say  arbitrary 
— in  their  ideas;  and  are  apter  and  apter,  with 
each  passing  day,  to  forget  that  they  only  hold 
power  in  a  representative  capacity.  Now  this  is 
all  wrong.  I  go  into  these  promiscuous  receptions 
of  all  who  claim  to  have  business  with  me  twice 
each  week,  and  every  applicant  for  audience  has 
to  take  his  turn  as  if  waiting  to  be  shaved  in  a 
barber's  shop.  Many  of  the  matters  brought  to 
my  notice  are  utterly  frivolous,  but  others  are  of 
more  or  less  importance ;  and  all  serve  to  renew 
in  me  a  clearer  and  more  vivid  image  of  that  great 
popular  assemblage  out  of  which  I  sprang,  and  to 
which  at  the  end  of  two  years  I  must  return.  I 
tell  you,  Major,"  he  said — appearing  at  this  point 
to  recollect  I  was  in  the  room,  for  the  former  part 
of  these  remarks  had  been  made  with  half-shut 
eyes,  as  if  in  soliloquy — "  I  tell  you  that  I  call 
these  receptions  my  public-opinion  baths — for  I 
have  but  little  time  to  read  the  papers  and  gather 
public  opinion  that  way ;  and,  though  they  may 
not  be  pleasant  in  all  their  particulars,  the  effect 
as  a  whole  is  renovating  and  invigorating  to  my 
perceptions  of  responsibility  and  duty.  It  would 
never  do  for  a  President  to  have  guards  with 
drawn  sabres  at  his  door,  as  if  he  fancied  he  were, 


EECOLLECTIONS  OF  MR.  LINCOLN.     107 

or  were  trying  to  be,  or  were  assuming  to  be,  an 
emperor." 

This  remark  about  "  guards  with  drawn  sabres 
at  his  door "  called  my  attention  afresh  to  what  I 
had  remarked  to  myself  almost  every  time  I 
entered  the  White  House,  both  then  and  since ; 
and  to  which  I  had  very  frequently  called  the 
attention  both  of  Major  Hay  and  General  Halleck : 
• — the  utterly  unprotected  condition  of  the  Presi 
dent's  person,  and  the  fact  that  any  assassin  or 
maniac,  seeking  his  life,  could  enter  his  presence 
without  the  interference  of  a  single  armed  man  to 
hold  him  back.  The  entrance-doors,  and  all  doors 
on  the  official  side  of  the  building,  were  open  at 
all  hours  of  the  day  and  very  late  into  the  eve 
ning  ;  and  I  have  many  times  entered  the  mansion 
and  walked  up  to  the  rooms  of  the  two  private, 
secretaries,  as  late  as  nine  or  ten  o'clock  at  night, 
without  seeing  or  being  challenged  by  a  single 
soul.  There  were,  indeed,  two  attendants — one 
for  the  outer  door,  and  the  other  for  the  door  of 
the  official  chambers ;  but  these,  thinking,  I  sup 
pose,  that  none  would  call  after  office-hours  save 
persons  who  were  personally  acquainted,  or  had 
the  right  of  official  entry — were,  not  unfrequently, 
somewhat  remiss  in  their  duties. 

To  this  fact  I  now  ventured  to  call  the  Presi 
dent's  attention,  saying  that  to  me — perhaps 
from  my  European  education — it  appeared  a  deli- 


108     RECOLLECTIONS  OF  MR.  LINCOLN. 

berate  courting  of  danger,  even  if  the  country 
were  in  a  state  of  the  profoundest  peace,  for  the 
person  at  the  head  of  the  nation  to  remain  so 
unprotected. 

"  Even  granting,  Mr.  Lincoln,"  I  said,  "  that  no 
assassin  should  seek  your  life,  the  large  number 
of  lunatics  always  in  a  community,  and  always 
larger  in  times  like  these,  and  the  tendency  which 
insanity  has  to  strike  at  shining  objects,  or  whom 
soever  is  most  talked  about,  should  lead — I  sub 
mit — to  some  guards  about  the  place,  and  to  some 
permanent  officers  with  the  power  and  duty  of 
questioning  all  who  seek  to  enter."  To  this  I 
added  some  brief  sketch  of  the  all  but  innumera 
ble  crazy  letters  and  projects  which  were  continu 
ally  being  received  at  General  Halleck's  head- 
t  quarters,  and  which  he  had  one  day  laughingly 
turned  over  to  me,  on  the  ground  that  I  now  and 
then  wrote  verses. 

"  There  are  two  dangers,  therefore,"  I  wound 
up  by  saying  ;  "  the  danger  of  deliberate  political 
assassination,  and  the  mere  brute  violence  of  in 
sanity." 

Mr.  Lincoln  had  heard  me  with  a  smile,  his 
hands  still  locked  across  his  knees,  and  his  body 
still  rocking  back  and  forth — the  common  indica 
tion  that  he  was  amused. 

"  Now,  as  to  political  assassination,"  he  said, 
"  do  you  think  the  Kichmond  people  would  like 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  MR.  LINCOLN.    109 

to  have  Hannibal  Hamlin  here  any  better  than 
myself?  In  that  one  alternative,  I  have  an  in 
surance  on  my  life  worth  half  the  prairie-land  of 
Illinois?  And  besides  " — this  more  gravely — "  if 
there  were  such  a  plot,  and  they  wanted  to  get  at 
me,  no  vigilance  could  keep  them  out.  We  are 
so  mixed  up  in  our  affairs,  that — no  matter  what 
the  system  established — a  conspiracy  to  assassinate, 
if  such  there  were,  could  easily  obtain  a  pass  to 
see  me  for  any  one  or  more  of  its  instruments. 
To  betray  fear  of  this,  by  placing  guards,  and  so 
forth,  would  only  be  to  put  the  idea  into  their 
heads,  and  perhaps  lead  to  the  very  result  it  was 
intended  to  prevent.  As  to  the  crazy  folks, 
Major,  why  I  must  only  take  my  chances — the 
worst  crazy  people  I  at  present  fear  being  some  of 
my  own  too  zealous  adherents.  That  there  may 
be  such  dangers  as  you  and  many  others  have 
suggested  to  me,  is  quite  possible ;  but  I  guess  it 
wouldn't  improve  things  any,  to  publish  that  we 
were  afraid  of  them  in  advance." 

At  this  point  the  President  turned  to  the  papers 
I  had  brought  over  for  his  signature,  and  signing 
them  handed  them  to  me  with  some  message  for 
General  Halleck.  Whereupon  I  bowed  myself 
out,  and  the  stream  of  omnium-gatherum  human 
ity  from  the  waiting-rooms  again  commenced  flow 
ing  in  upon  him — sometimes  in  individual,  some 
times  in  deputational  or  collective  waves. 


110     RECOLLECTIONS  OF  MR.  LINCOLN. 

The  whole  interview  I  have  here  narrated, 
though  taking  so  much  longer  to  tell,  had  proba 
bly  not  endured  over  ten  or  fifteen  minutes ;  and 
it  was  the  first,  although  not  the  only  time,  that 
I  heard  Mr.  Lincoln  discuss  the  possibility  of  an 
attempt  to  assassinate  him. 

The  second  time  was  when  he  came  over  one 
evening  after  dinner  to  General  Halleck's  private 
quarters  to  protest —  half  jocularly,  half  in  earnest — 
against  a  small  detachment  of  cavalry  which  had 
been  detailed  without  his  request,  and  partly 
against  his  will,  by  the  lamented  General  Wads- 
worth,  as  a  guard  for  his  carriage  in  going  to  and 
returning  from  the  Soldiers'  Home.  The  burden 
of  his  complaint  was  that  he  and  Mrs.  Lincoln 
"  couldn't  hear  themselves  talk  "  for  the  clatter  of 
their  sabres  and  spurs;  and  that,  as  many  of  them 
appeared  new  hands  and  very  awkward,  he  was 
more  afraid  of  being  shot  by  the  accidental  dis 
charge  of  one  of  their  carbines  or  revolvers,  than 
of  any  attempt  upon  his  life,  or  for  his  capture,  by 
the  roving  squads  of  Jeb  Stuart's  cavalry,  then 
hovering  all  round  the  exterior  earth-works  of 
the  city. 

This  conversation  is  related,  as  reproduced  by 
a  memory  of  perhaps  more  than  average  tenacity, 
precisely  as  the  writer  would  re-word  the  matter 
if  called  upon  to  give  evidence  thereanent  in  a 
court  of  justice.  Nothing  has  been  added  to  it. 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  MB.   LINCOLN.          Ill 

nor  anything  suppressed,  that  I  can  recollect. 
The  President's  remarks — perhaps  soliloquy  were 
the  better  term — relative  to  the  necessity  of  con 
stant  intercommunication  with  the  average  people 
of  the  country,  made  a  deep  impression  on  me ; 
and  his  calling  these  general  receptions  his  "  pub 
lic-opinion  baths,"  was  a  phrase  not  soon  to  be 
forgotten. 

From  the  25th  of  August,  1862,  until  relieved 
from  General  Halleck's  staff — late  in  December 
of  the  same  year — the  writer  had  the  good  for 
tune  of  enjoying  frequent  opportunities  of  see 
ing  and  hearing  Mr.  Lincoln;  and  more  especially 
during  the  dark  days  from  General  Pope's  disas 
trous  defeats  at  the  second  Bull  Kun  and  Chantilly 
until  after  the  enemy,  beaten  by  McClellan  at 
Antietam,  had  again  been  driven  south.  During 
all  this  period  the  President,  accompanied  by 
either  Major  Hay  or  Mr.  Nicolay,  spent  some 
hours  several  evenings  in  each  week  at  General 
Halleck's  private  quarters  ;  and  it  certainly  is  not 
too  much  to  say  that  the  more  any  candid  mind 
saw  of  Mr.  Lincoln — even  if  opposed  to  his  poli 
tical  views — the  more  deeply  must  it  have  become 
impressed  by  the  homely  honesty,  kindliness, 
force,  shrewdness,  originality,  humor,  and  self- 
sacrificing  patriotism  of  that  great  and  good  man's 
character. 


PROFESSORS   AGASSIZ  AND    LONGFEL 
LOW. 

CALL  ON  A  NEW  ENGLAND  POET  FOR  HIS  FRENCH 
VERSES. 

A  distinguished  poet  of  New  England — whose 
modesty  in  this  matter,  we  regret  to  say,  will  not 
allow  us  to  disclose  his  name  or  give  his  verses  in 
their  original  tongue — sent  a  present  of  six  bottles 
of  choice  wines  last  Christmas  Eve  to  his  friend 
Professor  Agassiz,  accompanying  the  donation, 
good  and  acceptable  in  itself,  with  a  copy  of  origi 
nal  French  verses  amusingly  descriptive  of  the 
various  liquors.  These  verses,  in  French,  by  a 
poet,  and  a  very  high  one,  of  New  England,  acci 
dentally  fell  some  few  months  ago  under  the  notice 
of  our  disorderly  ex-Orderly  Private  Miles 
O'Reilly,  who  immediately  proposed  that  all  the 
literary  gentlemen  who  were  present  at  the  weekly 
reunion  whereat  the  copy  was  shown  (for  they 
had  then  never  been  published,  though  printed  for 
private  circulation),  should  take  home  a  copy  with 
him  ;  and  that  each  should  bring  a  translation  of 
the  same  to  the  next  weekly  meeting.  This  was 
at  once  agreed  to,  apparently  with  enthusiasm,  by 


PROFESSORS  AGASSIZ  AND   LONGFELLOW.      113 

all  present ;  but  the  Boy  Himself  was  the  only 
one  who  finally  complied  with  the  general  stipu 
lation,  and  he  now  asks  us  to  give  notice  that, 
unless  the  gentlemen  then  present  who  agreed  to 
the  bargain,  and  "whose  names  are  omitted  by 
particular  request,"  send  in  within  a  week  from 
date  their  several  translations  of  said  French 
verses  to  Agassiz  by  a  poet  of  New  England, 
said  Boy  will  find  himself  compelled  to  commence 
actions  against  each  and  every  one  of  them  for 
having  obtained  from  him  "a  translation  under 
false  pretences."  Meantime,  to  give  each  and  all 
of  them  courage— as  the  rashest,  foolishest,  and 
most  good-natured  youngster  is  always  first  to 
jump  in  and  try  the  coldness  of  the  water  at  the 
commencement  of  each  bathing-season — we  here 
append  Private  O'Reilly's  English  version  of  the 
really  excellent  and  graceful  French  lines  of  the 
New  England  poet,  who  shall  be  nameless, — any 
further  than  to  remark  that  he  is  not  a  Short- 
fellow  :* 

CHRISTMAS. 

When  the  stars  of  Christmas  night 
Shone  with  palpitating  light, 

*  Since  this  was  first  in  type,  Professor  Longfellow  has  pub 
lished  his  French  lines.  They  may  be  found  in  the  Atlantic 
Monthly  for  October,  1865. 


114      PROFESSORS  AGASSIZ  AND   LONGFELLOW. 

Six  good  fellows,  liquor-lost, 
Sang  beneath  the  silvery  frost — 

"  Comrades,  we 
Should  go  right  off  to  Agassiz  1" 

These  foreign  pilgrims,  gay  and  bold, 
Kound-bellied  as  the  monks  of  old, 
With  silver  cowls  and  priestly  air, 
All  vied  in  boasting  that  they  were — 

"  Friends  are  we 
To  good  Jean  Rudolphe  Agassiz." 

Partridge-eye,  great  Merry  Andrew  ! 
Finer  tipple  never  man  drew  ! 
In  his  Burgundy  patois  vilely 
Stammered — worse  than  Miles  O'Reilly — 

"  Hear  all  ye  ! 
I  have  danced  with  Agassiz." 

Verzenay  with  leaping  cork — 
French  that  never  saw  New  York, 
Fresh  from  the  vintage  of  Avize, 
Quavers  again  and  again  to  these — 

"Hark  to  me! 
I  have  sung  with  Agassiz." 

Then  there  came  in  sober  sort 
An  old  hidalgo — grave  his  Port ! 
Whose  sires,  in  the  age  of  Charlemagne, 
Were  grandees  of  chivalric  Spain — 

"  Room  for  me ! 
I  have  dined  with  Agassiz." 


PROFESSORS  AGASSIZ  AND  LONGFELLOW.      115 

Next  advanced  a  Bordeaux  Gascon — 
Type  of  such  if  you  would  ask  one ! 
Perfumed  and  with  music  rife, 
Laughing,  singing,  full  of  life — 

"  Envy  me ! 
I  have  supped  with  Agassiz." 

With  this  auburn-headed  boy, 
Arm  in  arm — a  foe  to  joy, 
Haughty,  yellow-hued,  and  stern, 
Marched  the  cynic  lord,  Sauterne — 

"Hence,  all  ye! 
I  have  slept  with  Agassiz." 

Last,  and  full  of  pious  fire, 
Came  an  old  Carthusian  friar, 
Who  bellowed,  in  a  tone  robust, 
"  Benedictions  on  the  just  1 
Friends  all  we 
Should  go  and  bless  Sire  Agassiz." 

In  threes  they  started  as  they  were, 
And  climbed  the  wooden  stoop  and  stair, 
Hobbling  and  squabbling — "  What  gendarme, 
Will  allow  such  uproar  and  alarm 

Thus  to  be 
Raised  at  the  door  of  Agassiz." 

"  Open,"  they  cried,  "  Oh,  master  dear! 
Open  quickly,  and  do  not  fear ! 
Open  to  us,  and  soon  you'll  find 
We  are  comrades  worthy  your  noble  mind — 

Friends  are  we 
To  all  in  the  house  of  Agassiz." 


116      PROFESSORS  AGASSIZ  AND  LONGFELLOW. 

"  Hush,  ye  babblers  !  and  be  quiet, 
There  is  too  much  of  your  riot ; 
From  the  learned  you'll  win  no  trophies 
By  your  abominable  strophes — 

Hence  all  ye ! 
And  respect  the  peace  of  Agassiz." 

From  the  foregoing  it  will  be  seen  that  our 
New  England  poet  has  not  a  bad  taste  in  select 
ing  a  wine-bouquet  for  a  friend,  as,  indeed,  in 
what  matter  (save  in  not  allowing  us  to  publish 
his  original  French  in  company  with  this  transla 
tion),  is  his  taste  not  excellent?  Commencing 
with  (Eil  de  Perdrix,  or  Partridge-eye,  as  a  foun 
dation  beverage;  next  introducing  the  bubbling 
deliciousness  of  Yerzenay  from  the  vintage  of 
Avize — Yerzenay  "  that  never  saw  New  York," 
and  to  which  the  apple-orchards  and  cider-presses 
of  New  Jersey  are  but  vague  traditions  of  no 
application.;  then  after  that,  solemnly  bringing 
in  the  old,  rubicund,  full-bodied,  and  stately- 
ported  hidalgo  from  Spain  as  a  counterpoise  to 
the  frivolity  and  effervescence  of  the  previous 
visitor  ;  next  warming  up  and  rather  illuminating 
the  too  serious  gravity  and  weight  of  the  hidalgo's 
character  by  a  dash  of  the  perfumed  fop,  gallant, 
and  gasconading  braggart  from  Bordeaux,  whose 
tendency  to  extravagant  merriment  and  freedom, 
however,  is  soon  checked  and  chilled  by  the 
appearance  on  the  scene  of  action  of  that  sour, 


PROFESSORS  AGASSIZ  AND   LONGFELLOW.      117 

stern,  and  yellow-hued  "  cynic  lord,  Sauterne." 
Lastly,  to  wind  up  with  and  to  harmonize  the 
whole — to  put  the  finishing  stroke  on  the  ultimate 
delights  and  blisses  of  perfect  digestion,  and  to 
guard  the  cuticle  from  cold  as  the  guests  oscillate 
home  from  the  glowing  dinner-party  through  the 
keen  bright  frosts  of  that  Christmas  night — why, 
to  accomplish  all  these  blessings,  what  agent  better 
than  " un pauvre  Chartreux" — that  "poor  Carthu 
sian  friar" — could  he  have  possibly  selected  ?  We 
think  the  distinguished  New  England  poet  in 
question,  on  whose  French  verses  and  taste  in 
wines  we  have  thus  commented,  does  himself  and 
the  public  a  wrong  in  not  allowing  us  to  lay 
before  our  readers  and  the  rest  of  the  world  this 
rarely  excellent  jeu  cP  esprit  of  his  muse  in  a 
foreign  tongue.  It  would  take  something  more 
than  an  inelegancy,  or  even  inaccuracy — supposing 
there  were  any  perceivable  by  Parisian  ears — in 
a  few  French  lines  written  for  such  a  social  occa 
sion  as  this,  to  cost  their  respected  author  any  leaf 
from  the  wreath  he  has  so  nobly  earned  in  his 
native  tongue. 


SUMMER  NOTES  FEOM  THE  SEA-SIDE. 

[In  the  August  of  1868,  Private  Miles  wanted  a, 
fortnight's  furlough  to  go  sea-bathing  at  Newport, 
and  gave  a  glowing  picture  of  the  pleasures  of 
that  occupation  (in  the  right  kind  of  society)  to 
Col.  John  C.  Kelton  of  the  Adjutant-General's 
Department  of  the  Old  Army,  who  was  the 
officer  with  power  to  grant  his  wishes.  Kelton 
had  never  been  at  the  sea-side,  and  consequently 
knew  nothing  of  the  sport — his  duties  taking  him 
away  to  our  far- western  frontier  immediately  after 
his  graduation  from  the  Military  Academy.  After 
some  trouble,  therefore,  as  is  usual  in  such  cases, 
the  furlough  was  finally  granted  on  condition  that 
the  writer  should  report  his  sea-bathing  sensations 
at  Newport  to  his  superior  officer — a  condition 
which  was  thus  fulfilled.] 

MY  dear  Col.  Kelton :  but  lately  I  dwelt  on 
The  pleasures  of  tripping  through  breakers  and  dipping, 
Some  stately  brunette,  or  gay  blonde — better  yet — 
Tn  the  surf  and  the  surges  from  which  she  emerges 
Her  bright  eyes  half  blinded, 

Her  cheeks  salt  and  rosy, 
Her  hair — never  mind  it — 
She's  fresh  as  a  Posie ! 


SUMMER  NOTES  FROM  THE  SEA-SIDE.       119 

On  your  arm  loosely  swinging,  her  garments  close  clinging, 
The  waves  have  betrayed  her — each  delicate  rounding, 
She  is  just  as  God  made  her,  with  beauty  abounding ! 
No  lace,  no,  illusion,  but  charms  in  profusion ; 
No  hoops  to  enshroud  her,  no  rouge  or  pearl  powder ; 
All  milliner  traces 

Of  fashion  have  flown, 
And  in  all  its  true  graces 
Her  beauty  is  shown  j 
A  new  Aphrodite* 

She  shines  on  the  shore — 
0  sea  nymph !     Nereide ! 
We  bow  and  adore. 

Supreme  of  all  pleasures,  best  wealth  of  all  wealth, 
Unspeakable  treasures  of  youth  and  of  health! 
The  blue,  brawny  billows — calm  steady  old  fellows — 
The  moment  they  find  her  awaiting  their  shock 
In  their  strong  arms  to  wind  her  so  eagerly  flock 
That  they  break  into  clamors, 

And  rise  silver  crested, 
And  with  all  ocean's  glamours 

Of  splendor  invested — 

They  chase  and  pursue  her,  swirl  round  her  and  woo  her. 
Bright  wreaths  o'er  her  twining  in  hoarse  tones  they  praise 

her. 
And  high  in  their  shining  white  fore-arms  upraise  her. 

They  raise  her,  aspiring 

To  throne  her  on  shore, 
Then,  slowly  retiring, 
Again  with  a  roar, 

To  her  feet  they  surge  onward,  their  crests  sparkling  sun 
ward, 


120      SUMMER  NOTES  FBOM   THE   SEA-SIDE. 

Swirl  up  to  her  knee,  to  her  waist,  to  her  shoulder — 
Alas !  woe  is  me  that  my  heart  is  not  colder  ! 

That  it  is  not  so  cold 
As  to  calmly  behold 

These  lords  of  the  sea 

With  her  charms  making  free — 

Denied  and  for  ever  denied  unto  me ! 
That  my  hands  may  not  fold  her  dear  tresses  of  gold 
To  my  heart,  to  my  breast,  there  securely  to  rest, 
Her  tenderness  shielded,  her  passion  confessed  ! 

Tis  worth  all  our  long  marches, 
Hard  fare  and  repining, 
Our  trenching  and  mining, 
To  see  the  bright  arches 

Of  silver  spray  shining, 
All  round  and  above  her, 

As  if  the  rude  waves 
Did  humanly  love  her 

And  were  but  her  slaves ! 

So  get  wounded,  my  boy,  and  a  furlough  obtain, 
Such  moments  of  joy  are  worth  treble  the  pain : 
Let  a  ball  through  you  glance,  keeping  clear  of  the  bones- 
Just  enough  for  romance  (with  occasional  moans), 
And  you'll  find  it,  I  tell  you, 
Of  all  that  befell  you 

The  luckiest  day  you  have  met  in  your  life, 
If  you  are,  as  you  say,  "now  in  search  of  a  wife. " 


HONEST   TRUTH  ABOUT  YE  "FLAUNT 
ING  LIE." 

THE  TOCSIN-PEALS    OF  TEN  YEAKS  AGO. 

As  certain  Democratic  journals  and  orators 
throughout  the  country  have  seen  fit  to  attach 
undue  importance  and  a  totally  garbled  construc 
tion  to  an  extract  from  a  certain  song  which  ap 
peared  many  years  ago  in  the  N.  Y.  Tribune,  it  may 
be  as  well  at  this  point  to  place  on  record  a  true 
copy  of  that  song,  and  a  history  of  the  events  out  of 
which  it  grew,  together  with  copies  of  certain  other 
songs  on  the  same  subject,  forming  a  series  of 
which  the  much-quoted  lyric  was  but  a  part. 

The  first  song  of  the  series  appeared  in  the 
Consulate  of  Franklin  Pierce,  and  was  called  out 
by  the  circumstances  attending  the  capture  and 
imprisonment  of  one  Anthony  Burns,  an  alleged 
fugitive  slave  from  Virginia.  This  arrest  created 
intense  excitement  in  Boston,  insomuch  that  nearly 
all  business  was  suspended  during  its  pendency. 
The  people  and  State  authorities  of  the  grea,t  Old 
Commonwealth  were  perfectly  willing  to  obey  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Law,  provided  its  provisions  were 
properly  complied  with,  and  the  accused  given 


122  YE 

some  chance  of  proving,  if  he  could,  that  he  was 
not  the  character  he  had  been  taken  for.  This, 
however,  was  not  the  policy  of  the  then  Federal 
officials,  who  conducted  the  whole  case  with  an 
overbearing  insolence  and  disregard  of  the  popular 
feelings  which  seemed  to  court  an  armed  collision. 
While  the  excitement  was  at  its  highest,  a  Boston 
paper  announced,  with  high  commendation,  that 
"  two  companies  of  foreign-born  soldiers  had  been 
stationed  in  and  around  the  Court-House  to  keep 
back  the  rabble  " — this  "  rabble,"  we  may  remark, 
embracing  seven-eighths  of  all  that  was  most  emi 
nent  in  the  learning,  piety,  public  confidence,  and 
respectability  of  the  Trimontane  City.  Taking 
these  words  of  the  paper  for  his  text,  the  author 
of  this  series  wrote  and  sent  to  The  Independent 
the  following  verses,  which  he  called : 

LINES  FOR  THE  DAY. 

Aye !  throng  the  courts,  that  once  were  free, 
With  bands  of  savage  soldiery — 

Call  out  the  foreign  kern  ! 
Beneath  the  shade  of  Bunker  shaft, 
Where  earth  the  blood  of  freemen  quaffed, 

A  different  tale  this  day  we  learn. 

Crush  Massachusetts  under  foot, 
Destroy  our  freedom,  branch  and  root, 
The  Northern  mind  is  bowed  ; 


YE  "FLAUNTING  LIE."  123 


ISTo  more  the  Pilgrim  banner  waves, 
Content  we  see  our  fathers'  graves 

By  Slavery's  groaning  cannon  plowed. 

Oh  !  Massachusetts,  Mother  home  ! 
The  rocks  that  dash  to  whitening  foam 

Those  seas  the  Mayflower  pressed — 
Those  very  rocks  cry  out  to-day, 
The  waves  dash  high  their  glittering  spray, 

To  see  thy  weakness  thus  confessed. 

And  shall  Virginia's  jeering  lords, 
Backed  and  sustained  by  foreign  swords, 

Thy  ancient  soul  subdue  ? 
Shall  hireling  steel  and  Southern  fraud 
Reverse  the  mandate  given  by  God — 

"  Do  as  ye  would  men  do  to  you  1" 

Oh !  never,  while  to  misery's  sob 
Our  eyes  o'erflow,  our  pulses  throb, 

Can  come  a  day  so  cursed  j 
While  hope  remains,  while  arms  are  strong, 
While  lives  the  sense  of  right  and  wrong, 

These  fetters  be  it  ours  to  burst  I 

We  have  been  patient,  and  our  peace 
Mistaken  was  for  cowardice — 

We  try  a  different  tense ; 
The  passive  mood  hath  brought  us  chains, 
The  active  now  alone  remains 

To  bring  these  tyrants  back  to  sense. 

Up,  Massachusetts,  up  and  arm ! 
Let  every  steeple  toll  the  alarm, 
Rally  thy  freemen  soon ! 


124  YE 

Old  Boston,  as  you  hope  to  live, 
Ne'er  let  that  frightened  fugitive 

In  fetters  quit  your  barracoon ! 

"Whether  our  rights  we  now  defend, 
Or  if  the  North  must  yet  descend 

From  depth  to  lower  deeps ; 
Remember  this — nor  be  you  dumb 
In  the  great  struggle  yet  to  come — 

With  us  the  South  no  promise  keeps. 

This  song,  immediately  republished  in  the  Tri 
bune,  achieved  a  sudden  and  immense  popularity, 
being  widely  copied  in  the  journals  of  the  day, 
and  largely  quoted  from  in  the  adverse  speeches 
of  party  orators.  It  was  a  veritable  "  tocsin  peal," 
and  was  answered  by  an  uprising  of  popular  opi 
nion  such  as  is  rarely  witnessed. 

"While  these  matters  were  going  on  in  Boston, 
a  wretch  to  whose  name  we  afford  the  charity  of 
oblivion,  committed  in  one  night  a  succession  of 
crimes  at  the  bare  recital  of  which  the  imagina 
tion  shudders.  The  scene  of  the  occurrence  was 
in  the  vicinity  of  Flatbush,  Long  Island.  The 
monster  entered  a  house  in  which  he  had  formerly 
been  employed  as  a  servant,  for  the  double  pur 
pose  of  robbing  his  master  and  outraging  a  young 
girl  who  had  been  his  fellow-servant  and  had 
rejected  his  addresses.  During  the  perpetration 
of  these  crimes,  his  former  master  and  mistress 
were  aroused,  whereupon  he  split  their  heads  open 


YE  "FLAUNTING  LIE."  125 

with  a  meat-axe,  otherwise  mangling  them  fright 
fully,  and  then  attempted  to  kill  the  girl  he  had 
tried  to  ravish  ;  after  which  he  set  fire  to  the  house 
in  order  to  destroy  the  lifeless  proofs  of  his  guilt. 

A  horror  so  aggravated  aroused  all  the  neigh 
boring  citizens  to  fury.  Hundreds  organized  them 
selves  into  a  searching  party,  and  hunted  for  the 
villain  through  the  swamp  in  which  he  had  taken 
refuge.  He  was  at  last  found,  after  two  or  three 
days'  search,  hidden  up  to  his  neck  in  mud ;  and 
bleeding  profusely  from  some  wounds  self-inflicted, 
by  which  he  hoped  to  cheat  the  gallows.  On  being 
caught  he  at  once  confessed  his  crimes,  and  it  was 
for  a  moment  debated  as  to  whether  he  should  not 
be  lynched  upon  the  spot.  The  spirit  of  law  and 
justice  prevailed,  however,  and  it  was  decided  to 
give  him  a  fair  trial  and  an  opportunity  for  counsel 
to  defend  him. 

The  very  same  paper  that  gave  particulars  of 
this  tragedy,  described,  also,  how  Anthony  Burns, 
without  any  fair  trial,  had  been  ordered  back  to 
slavery  on  the  mere  affidavit  of  a  citizen  of  Vir 
ginia,  claiming  to  be  his  owner,  and  the  arbitrary 
decision  of  a  Commissioner,  who  was  paid  an  extra 
five  dollars  by  law  for  deciding  against  the  black 
man.  All  Boston  closed  its  places  of  business  on 
the  day  that  the  military  procession  appeared  as 
an  escort  for  Anthony  Burns  from  the  Court- House 
to  the  wharf.  The  black  man  was  in  the  centre 


126  YE 

of  a  square  of  infantry.  Two  sections  of  artillery, 
loaded  with  grape,  were  paraded  to  repress  any 
popular  outburst.  Meanwhile  appeared  on  nearly 
every  house-top  the  United  States  flag  at  half- 
mast,  while  over  Faneuil  Hall,  the  old  "  Cradle  of 
Liberty,"  the  same  flag  was  displayed  at  half-mast 
and  completely  enshrouded  in  crape. 

On  these  simultaneous  events  were  written  the 
verses  (originally  published  in  the  Tribune] 
which  we  now  subjoin  : 

THE   CONTKAST. 

These  are  two  pictures  roughly  drawn, 
Two  scenes  to  meditate  upon  : 

No  rainbow  tints  o'erflood 
The  breathing  figures  they  reveal : 
The  pencil  was  assassin  steel, 

The  palette  swam  in  blood ! 

LONG    ISLAND. 

Crouched  in  the  swamp,  amid  the  fern, 
What  hideous  features  we  discern, 

Torn,  filthy,  and  aghast — 
How  brutishly  his  eyeballs  glare, 
As  still  he  shrinks  within  his  lair, 

'Till  those  who  hunt  have  passed  ! 

And  there  are  shouts  and  thrilling  cries 
As  hunting  group  to  group  replies — 
His  covert  they  have  hemmed  ; 


YE  "FLAUNTING  LIE."  127 

They  hunt  a  monster  steeped  in  crime, 
And  find  him,  grovelling  in  the  slime, 


Self-wounded,  self-condemned. 


What  tongue  describe  the  midnight  scene, 
When  first  the  murderer  crept  within 

That  home  of  peaceful  life  ? 
When  the  dull  meat-axe  fell  amain 
Through  the  crushed  bone  and  spattering  brain 

Of  husband  and  of  wife ! 

No  matter — let  the  law  decide  ! 
Though  he  confesses  how  they  died, 

Although  his  guilt  appears ; 
Let  judges  sit  and  counsel  plan, 
And  let  him  answer  as  he  can, 

A  jury  of  his  peers. 


NEW    ENGLAND. 

Our  Boston  streets  are  mute  to-day, 
Though  tens  of  thousands  throng  the  way, 

Our  flags  are  draped  with  crape  ; 
No  sound  except  the  death-bell's  toll, 
The  tramp  of  soldiers,  and  the  roll 

Of  cannon  brimmed  with  grape. 

Lo  !  as  the  fettered  black  appears 
Amid  the  square  of  serried  spears, 

How  heaves  the  multitude  ! 
They  seek  with  flowers  to  strew  his  track, 
But  levelled  bayonets  drive  them  back — 

Is  his  the  crime  of  blood  ? 


128  YE 

Worse  than  all  crimes !  his  skin  is  dark, 
And  Southern  fraud  has  set  her  mark 

Upon  his  fettered  limbs. 
Pampered  and  fed  by  Federal  might, 
HER  ARK  of  Liberty  and  Right 

On  slavery's  red-sea  swims  ! 

Nor  does  the  man-thief  even  avow 
That  guilt  has  stained  that  ebon  brow — 

The  crime  is  in  the  skin ; 
Yet,  monster !  hungering  for  your  prey, 
A  whiter  heart  than  yours  to-day 

That  bosom  beats  within  1 


For  him  no  trial — never  pause — 
Rough-ride  New  England's  honored  laws, 

Make  of  our  tears  your  mirth  ! 
Our  first-born  Freedom  ye  have  slain — 
But  in  the  "  Cradle  "  once  again 

We  swear  to  rock  a  nobler  birth. 

The  troubles  of  Franklin  Pierce  and  Company 
were  not  yet  half  over,  in  reference  to  this  poor 
"  colored  American  of  African  descent."  On  the 
trial  being  made,  it  was  found  that  no  ship  or 
steamer  in  Boston  could  be  hired  for  the  purpose 
of  carrying  this  alleged  fugitive  back  to  slavery. 
The  universal  cry  was  :  u  Give  him  a  trial.  De 
mand  from  the  Virginian  that  he  shall  give  as 
much  proof  of  ownership  as  would  be  required 
to  recover  a  stray  dog !  Comply  only  with  these 


YE  "FLAUNTING  LIE."  129 

requisitions,  and  we  bow  as  in  duty  bound  to  the 
supremacy  of  the  laws  of  the  Union." 

Matters  having  arrived  at  this  pass,  Caleb 
Gushing  and  Company  had  nothing  for  it  but  the 
conversion  of  a  national  armed  vessel  into  a  slave 
ship.  The  Morris  was  ordered  to  Boston  for  the 
sole  purpose  of  carrying  back  to  Yirginia  this  one 
miserable  wretch — alleged  to  be  a  fugitive  from 
slavery.  Picture — those  who  know  anything  of 
the  Old  Bay  State — the  horror  created  by  this 
ignominious  desecration  of  a  national  ship !  The 
flag  that  had  waved  over  slippery  and  smoking 
decks  in  our  early  conflicts  with  Great  Britain — 
the  flag  to  which  our  earliest  and  noblest  captains 
had  lifted  their  eyes  for  inspiration  through  the 
hot  hours  of  many  a  bloody  sea-fight — for  that  flag 
Caleb  Gushing  and  Company  could  find  no  better 
business  ten  years  ago  than  to  cover,  at  the  mast 
head  of  the  Morris,  this  isolated  instance  of  the 
slave-trade  carried  on  in  an  armed  vessel  of  the 
Nation. 

Just  think  of  it !  Bear  in  mind  all  the  sur 
roundings  of  the  case ;  and  then  read  the  following 
lines,  first  published  in  the  Tribune,  June  13, 
1854,  with  such  comment  and  such  appetites  as 
your  natures  may  suggest.  Taken  as  a  whole, 
and  not  merely  looking  at  the  three  garbled 
stanzas  which  a  portion  of  the  press  saw  fit  to 

give  as  the  entire  poem,  it  will  be  seen  that  the 
g* 


130  YE    "FLAUNTING  LIE." 

lines  are  really  a  glowing  tribute  to  the  glory  and 
greatness  of  our  national  banner ;  a  glowing  pro 
test  against  its  desecration  in  one  particular  in 
stance. 


HAIL  TO  THE   STARS  AND  STRIPES.* 

[The  U.  S.  cutter  Morris  has  been  ordered  by  President 
Franklin  Pierce  to  carry  Anthony  Burns  from  Boston  to 
Virginia,  to  be  there  enslaved  for  ever. — Boston  Common 
wealth.] 

Hail  to  the  Stars  and  Stripes  ! 

The  boastful  flag  all  hail ! 
The  tyrant  trembles  now, 

And  at  the  sight  grows  pale ; 
The  Old  World  groans  in  pain, 

And  turns  her  eye  to  see, 
Beyond  the  Western  Main, 

This  emblem  of  the  Free. 

Hail  to  the  Stripes  and  Stars ! 

Hope  beams  in  every  ray, 
And  through  the  dungeon  bars 

Points  out  a  brighter  way. 
The  Old  World  sees  the  light 

That  shall  her  ceUs  illume, 
And,  shrinking  back  to  night, 

Oppression  reads  her  doom. 

*  This  song  has  received  the  compliment  of  being  the  only 
one  copied  in  the  first  volume  of  Horace  Greeley's  "  History  of 
the  American  Conflict,"  being  given  as  a  sample  of  the  spirit 
aroused  by  the  excessive  exactions. 


YE   "FLAUNTING  LIE."  131 

Hail  to  the  Stars  and  Stripes ! 

They  float  in  every  sea ; 
O'er  every  ocean  sweeps 

Our  emblem  of  the  Free. 
Beneath  the  azure  skies 

Of  the  soft  Italian  clime, 
Or  where  the  Aurora  dies 

In  solitude  sublime. 


All  hail  the  flaunting  Lie  ! 

The  Stars  grow  pale  and  dim — 
The  Stripes  are  bloody  scars, 

A  lie  the  flaunting  hymn  ! 
It  shields  a  pirate's  deck, 

It  binds  a  man  in  chains, 
And  round  the  captive's  neck 

Its  folds  are  bloody  stains. 

Tear  down  the  flaunting  Lie  ! 

Half-mast  the  starry  flag ! 
Insult  no  sunny  sky 

With  this  polluted  rag ! 
Destroy  it,  ye  who  can  I 

Deep  sink  it  in  the  waves ! 
It  bears  a  fellow-man 

To  groan  with  fellow-slaves. 

Awake  the  burning  scorn — 
The  vengeance  long  and  deep, 

That,  till  a  better  morn, 
Shall  neither  tire  nor  sleep  ! 


132  YE 

Swear  once  again  the  vow, 

By  all  we  hope  or  dream, 
That  what  we  suffer  now 

The  future  shall  redeem. 

Purl,  furl  the  boasted  Lie, 

Till  Freedom  lives  again, 
With  stature  grand  and  purpose  high 

Among  untrammelled  men ! 
Roll  up  the  starry  sheen, 

Conceal  its  bloody  stains ; 
For  in  its  folds  are  seen 

The  stamp  of  rusting  chains. 

Swear,  Freemen — all  as  one — 

To  spurn  the  flaunting  Lie, 
Till  Peace,  and  Truth,  and  Love 

Shall  fill  the  brooding  sky ; 
Then,  floating  in  the  air, 

O'er  hill,  and  dale,  and  sea, 
'Twill  stand  for  ever  fair, 

The  emblem  of  the  Free  ! 

To  all  of  treason,  disloyalty,  or  contempt  for 
the  national  flag  that  the  enemies  of  human  free 
dom  can  find  in  the  foregoing  verses,  we  bid  them 
heartily  welcome.  They  have  never  heretofore 
published  more  than  a  few  stanzas,  and  even 
those  few  were  garbled  and  twisted  out  of  their 
proper  sense  and  connection.  The  copy  now  sub 
mitted  is  from  a  revise  by  the  author ;  and  as — 
for  good  or  evil — this  song  has  passed  into  the 


YE  "FLAUNTING  LIE."  133 

history  of  our  country  and  age,  we  think  those 
who  have  misquoted  extracts  from  it  should  let 
the  whole  of  it  be  seen  in  its  rightful  shape. 

And  now  for  the  last  of  the  "tocsin-peals" 
rung  out  in  the  columns  of  the  Tribune. 

On  the  arrival  of  the  Morris  in  the  South,  with 
her  black  prisoner  duly  fettered  on  board,  there 
was  tremendous  rejoicing  through  all  slavedom — 
late  Jeffdom.  All  the  orators  and  bards  of  the 
"  Chivalry"  made  speeches  and  wrote  songs  in 
honor  of  their  victory  over  the  law-abiding  citi 
zens  of  the  old  Bay  State.  Joy-bells  were  rung, 
bonfires  kindled,  windows  were  illuminated,  much 
whiskey  consumed — and  the  friends  of  Franklin 
Pierce  thought  his  renomination  certain.  There 
was  joy  in  the  White  House,  but  mourning  in 
the  best  hearts  of  New  England.  That  a  fugitive 
slave,  duly  proved  to  be  such,  should  be  returned, 
was  a  necessity  in  which  very  nearly  all  New 
England  acquiesced.  But  that  a  Southern  master 
should  be  sustained  by  the  Federal  Executive  in 
seizing  a  man  in  the  streets  of  Boston,  and  hur 
rying  him  away  without  any  substantial  proofs  of 
his  identity  or  former  servitude — this  cup  was  a 
bitter  one,  but  President  Pierce  and  Caleb  Cush- 
ing  made  Massachusetts  drink  of  it  to  the  very 
dregs. 

On  the  receipt  of  Anthony  Burns  in  the  Old 
Dominion,  he  was  solemnly  turned  over  from  the 


134:  YE  "FLAUNTING  LIE." 

custody  of  National  bayonets  to  that  of  the  local 
militia,  an  organization  with  which  the  North  has 
since  become  pretty  thoroughly  acquainted  at 
Manassas,  Antietam,  Malvern  Hill,  Fredericks- 
burg,  the  Wilderness,  and  elsewhere.  By  these 
military  scions  of  First  Families  of  Virginia  he 
was  ostentatiously  escorted  to  the  plantation  of  his 
alleged  owner ;  and  it  was  on  the  report  of  the 
joyous  and  triumphal  ceremonies  then  and  there 
enacted  that  the  following  verses  were  struck  off 
and  given  to  the  public  in  the  Tribune. 

THE  CURTAIN   FALLS. 

Hark !  how  the  joy-bells  of  the  South 
Speak  victory  with  brazen  mouth  I 

What  tyrant  have  they  slain  ? 
What  conquered  monarch  comes  to-day 
Begirt  by  all  this  plumed  array 

Of  proud  and  weaponed  men  ? 

Those  joy  bells !     Once  I  heard  them  ring 
When  Britain's  dull  and  savage  King 

Loosed  from  our  throat  his  grip  j 
Then  sabres  gleamed — then  Kingship  fell — 
And  are  they  pealed  once  more  to  tell 

This  Victory  of  the  Whip? 

Behold  him  in  the  centre,  there  1 
The  fettered  image  of  despair, 
While  round  him  hotly  flows, 


YE  ''FLAUNTING  LIE."  135 

That  "  Chivalry  "  the  Southrons  boast — 
And  on  the  flag  that  leads  the  host 
The  name  of  "  Freedom"  glows  ! 

Aye  !  lead  him  where  the  lilacs  bloom 
Around  Mount  Vernon's  silent  tomb — 

Green  be  those  trees  and  fresh ! 
And  there,  with  oaths  as  fierce  as  deep, 
Salute  the  mouldering  tenant's  sleep 

With  bids  for  human  flesh ! 

Who  cares  for  Boston  ?  though  her  cry, 
Her  wail  of  bitter  agony, 

Through  all  the  welkin  swells  ! 
She  dared  not  face  our  shotted  guns — 
We  drown  the  murmur  of  her  sons 

With  shouts  and  clanging  bells. 

No  respite — no  surcease  of  woe ! 
And  shall  it  be  for  ever  so  ? 

Was  this  the  Pilgrim  faith  ? 
Shall  Freedom's  votaries  still  despair, 
And  must  the  living  North  yet  bear 

This  yoke  with  moral  death  ? 

From  the  foregoing  history,  it  will  be  seen  that 
the  "  Flaunting-Lie"  story  of  the  Copperhead  jour 
nals  and  orators  was  a  "  flaunting  lie  "  indeed.  It 
will  also  be  seen  that,  far  from  being  an  utterance 
in  contempt  of  the  flag,  it  was  a  cry  of  sorrowful 
indignation  at  beholding  the  desecration  of  that 
sacred  emblem.  This  statement  we  have  felt  due 
to  the  truth  of  history,  as  also  to  relieve  Mr.  Gree- 


136  YE 

ley  from  much  undeserved  obloquy  ;  and  now  the 
subject  stands  dismissed,  with  only  this  concluding 
remark:  All  four  songs  were  tossed  out,  we 
believe,  in  the  heat  and  hurry  of  daily  journalism, 
and  have  this  eminent  value:  that,  however 
deficient  they  may  be  in  literary  merit  or  polish, 
they  give  a  true,  permanent,  and  intensified 
expression  to  what  were  the  convictions  of  the 
popular  mind  on  a  subject  which  must  for  ever 
remain  of  the  highest  interest. 


LOUIS  NAPOLEON'S  "LIFE  OF  CJESAK." 

DYNASTIC  DELUSIONS  OF  THE   EMPEROR. 

THE  many  who  will  persist  in  regarding  Louis 
Napoleon  as  merely  an  Emperor,  in  the  common 
sense  of  the  word,  do  him  far  less  than  justice, 
and  take  their  observations  of  his  character  from 
a  stand-point  which  must  for  ever  prevent  their 
forming  a  true  appreciation  of  his  motives  and 
the  probable  outcome  of  his  acts.  He  is  essen 
tially  a  philosopher  who  speculates  in  systems  of 
government  ;  a  literary  man  who,  happily  or 
unhappily  for  himself,  has  obtained  power  to  test 
the  various  dynastic  theories  which  he  has  formed 
during  a  dreamy  life,  by  the  arbitrament  of  fleets, 
armies,  edicts,  and  schemes  of  finance — all  the 
moral  and  material  resources  of  a  powerful  but 
fickle  people.  To  the  subjects  of  government  as 
a  science,  and  the  perpetuation  of  dynasties  as  an 
art,  he  would  seem  from  his  earliest  days  to  have 
devoted  all  the  energies  of  a  plodding  but  not 
brilliant  intellect — an  intellect  in  which  we  find 
the  infidelity  and  audacity  which  marked  the 
France  of  twenty  years  before  his  birth,  curiously 
contrasted  with  an  almost  reverential  study  of  the 


138 


lessons  of  history,  and  a  touchingly  credulous 
acquiescence  in  whatever  may  appear  to  be  the 
necessities  which  those  lessons  would  impose. 

That  faith  in  the  "  Napoleonic  star"  which, 
with  the  stronger  Uncle,  was  in  great  part  a  thea 
trical  assumption,  designed  to  give  confidence  to 
his  followers  in  times  of  peril,  would  seem  to  have 
been  accepted  by  the  weaker  Nephew  as  a  reli 
gious  truth — a  truth  both  historical  and  philoso 
phic,  on  the  sufficient  basis  of  which  a  permanent 
imperial  dynasty  for  France  may  with  safety  be 
constructed.  For  this  theory  he  seeks  support  in 
the  analogies  of  history — his  retrospection  conti 
nually  studying  and  reproducing  the  motives  and 
maxims  of  his  Uncle,  as  in  the  volume  entitled 
"  Napoleonic  Ideas  ;"  and  his  slow  intellect  never 
seeming  to  tire  of  analyzing  the  lives  of  Julius  Cae 
sar  and  Charlemagne,  as  the  two  great  military  and 
imperial  characters  in  whose  designs  and  successes 
may  be  found  the  closest  parallels  to  the  achieve 
ments  of  the  elder  Napoleon.  For  the  written 
results  of  his  researches  into  the  history  and  times 
of  Charlemagne,  Parisian  rumor  says  we  may  have 
yet  some  years  to  wait ;  but  already  we  know 
there  is  in  press  a  "  History  of  Caesar  "  from  Louis 
Napoleon's  pen — the  design  of  this  last  imperial 
literary  effort  being,  as  we  imagine,  to  prove : 
that  as  the  First  Napoleon  was,  in  his  conquests 
and  final  fate,  a  rather  close  counterpart  of  the 


LOUIS  NAPOLEON'S  "LIFE  OF  CAESAR."      139 

First  Caesar ;  so  in  the  Second  Napoleon  w£  may 
expect  to  see  revived  the  peaceful  glories,  irresis 
tible  sway,  artistic  and  material  progress,  and  con 
solidating  influences  of  the  Augustan  era. 

For  this  conjecture  as  to  the  object  and  intended 
moral  of  the  forthcoming  work,  we  have  no  other 
ground  than  a  pretty  accurate  study  of  Louis 
Napoleon's  character  and  a  just  estimate  of  the  cir 
cumstances  under  which  he  writes.  Occupying 
the  most  perplexing  and  unstable  throne  in  Europe, 
a  prey  to  physical  maladies  and  devoured  by  a 
desire  to  perpetuate  his  dynasty  in  the  person  of 
his  son,  the  French  imperial  litterateur  flies  to  his 
pen,  at  once  as  a  relief  from  oppressing  cares  and 
as  an  instrument  which  may  be  made  useful  in 
giving  popularity  to  his  ideas.  That  the  views 
which,  we  doubt  not,  his  edition  of  Caesar  will  be 
found  to  contain  are  plausible  on  their  face,  is  not 
to  be  denied.  As  the  Koman  conqueror  laid  the 
foundations  of  his  greatness  by  victoriously  carry 
ing  the  eagles  of  his  country  over  France,  Spain, 
Grermany ,  and  Britain,  while  at  home  all  was  mutiny 
and  chaos  in  the  expiring  republic  of  the  munici 
pality  of  Eome  ;  so  the  elder  Napoleon  dazzled  the 
eyes  of  France  by  his  successes  in  Italy  and  else 
where,  at  a  period  when  the  democratic  govern 
ment  in  Paris  had  become  the  very  incarnation  of 
oppression  without  purpose,  and  imbecility  from 
which  there  could  be  no  appeal. 


140 


In  'the  manner  of  their  obtaining  imperial 
power — for  Caesar  had  long  held  it  in  fact,  though 
assassinated  under  a  suspicion  of  desiring  to  assume 
it  in  title — there  is  the  strictest  possible  analogy 
between  the  histories  of  the  first  Koman  and  the 
first  French  Emperors.  Both  were  first-class  mili 
tary  conquerors,  and  both  poor  statesmen;  both 
had  achieved  triumphs  abroad  while  chaos  ruled 
at  home;  both  were  called  upon  to  return  and 
assume  the  direction  of  affairs  by  the  all  but  unani 
mous  cry  of  a  people  who  could  nowhere  else  see 
any  hope  of  stability ;  both  committed  the  mistake 
of  believing  themselves  the  creators  and  not  the 
creatures  of  the  circumstances  by  which  they  found 
themselves  surrounded ;  and  both  paid  the  penalty 
of  their  lives — Caesar,  the  more  happy,  under  sud 
den  blows,  and  Napoleon  in  the  long  exile  of  St. 
Helena — for  having  failed  to  realize  that  the  time 
in  which  each  lived  was  not  the  proper  time  for 
the  experiment  of  personal  aggrandizement  which 
each  attempted. 

Different  epochs  and  conditions  of  society  call 
for  and  produce  new  forms  of  government.  Eome 
had  originally  been  governed  by  kings,  of  whom 
Tarquinius  Superbus  was  the  last.  Then  came 
four  hundred  years  of  a  so-called  republican  gov 
ernment,  which  was  just  terminating,  utterly  effete 
and  exhausted,  when  Caesar  stepped  upon  the  stage. 
It  was  not  a  republic  in  any  true  sense — the  muni- 


LOUIS  NAPOLEON'S  "LIFE  OF  OESAK."     141 

cipality  of  Eorae  giving  laws  to  the  empire,  but  a 
few  aristocratic  families  holding  the  votes  of  all 
other  Roman  citizens  in  complete  subjection. 
Caesar  judged  a  change  of  government  to  be  immi 
nent,  and  in  this  he  was  right  j  but  he  contem 
plated  a  return  in  his  own  person  to  the  former 
system  of  a  kingship,  and  here  was  his  error. 
Nations,  no  more  than  individuals,  repeat  in  the 
progress  of  their  lives  the  passions  or  the  follies 
of  past  eras.  Eome  did  not  want  a  king ;  and, 
speaking  by  the  hand  of  Brutus,  C<esar  was  blood 
ily  rebuked  for  supposing  he  could  make  himself 
a  successor  to  the  last  of  the  Tarquins.  But  Rome 
did  want  a  change  of  government ;  the  hour  had 
become  ripe  for  producing  a  new  system  of  rule  ; 
and  in  the  person  of  Augustus,  and  with  the  title 
of  "Imperator,"  or  general-in-chief,  borrowed  from 
the  camps,  and  only  suggesting  military  ascend 
ency,  the  Roman  people  passed  cheerfully  under 
the  yoke  of  an  empire — that  being  the  form  of 
government  which  most  clearly  realized  their  aspi 
rations  for  universal  conquest. 

In  France  and  with  the  elder  Napoleon  the  case 
was  different.  There  the  kingship  of  the  Capets, 
accompanied  by  the  oppressions  of  a  feudal  aristo 
cracy,  had  become  effete,  and  all  Frenchmen  needed 
a  change.  The  republic,  in  the  days  of  its  infancy, 
was  assailed  by  powerful  combinations  of  foreign 
foes  and  domestic  traitors.  It  absolutely  needed 


142     LOUIS  NAPOLEON'S  "LIFE  OF  OESAR." 

for  its  guidance  through,  that  bitter  period  the  firm 
hand  and  absolute  will  of  a  successful  military 
chief.  This  want  the  elder  Napoleon  supplied: 
and  history  tells  us  how  generous  was  his  welcome, 
how  boundless  the  homage,  almost  the  idolatry, 
France  poured  at  his  feet.  But  as  Caesar,  mistak 
enly,  under  similar  circumstances,  supposed  Eome 
to  need  a  king — so  Napoleon,  misled  by  his  vanity 
and  personal  ambition,  thought  France  must  need 
an  emperor.  Here  was  an  egregious  folly,  only 
to  be  pardoned  for  the  severity  of  the  penalty 
which  it  evoked.  France,  in  making  a  republic  in 
Europe,  had  fulfilled  her  needs.  Her  new  sys 
tem  was  not  worn  out :  indeed,  was  only  in  its 
infancy,  as  it  is  even  yet.  That  new  experiment 
has  since  been  interrupted  by  foreign  accidents — a 
few  generations  in  the  history  of  a  nation  being 
comparatively  as  brief  as  the  fainting  fit  of  a 
moment  in  the  life  of  a  young  child.  In  throwing 
off  the  Bourbon  and  Orleans  dynasties,  and  accept 
ing  Louis  Napoleon  as  emperor  by  the  voice  of 
universal  suffrage,  France  well  knows  that  she  is 
returning  fast  towards  her  intermitted  experiment 
of  a  democratic  republic.  It  is  her  destiny,  she 
feels,  to  live  under  the  new  form  of  government 
that  she  was  the  first  to  create  in  Europe — the 
present  emperorship  of  Louis  Napoleon  being  no 
more  than  a  mask  or  curtain  behind  which  the 
forces  of  her  Nationhood  are  preparing  for  a 


LOUIS  NAPOLEON'S  ''LIFE  OF  CJESAK."      143 

return  to   the    completion    of   their  interrupted 
dream. 

Nations  never  go  backward  on  their  tracks :  nor 
can  dissimilar  causes  in  their  history,  any  more 
than  in  the  history  of  individual  lives,  produce 
similar  results.  Charlemagne  tried  to  revive  the 
Eoman  imperial  system  in  his  own  person,  con 
quering  all  Europe  west  of  the  Danube  and  call 
ing  it  the  "Empire  of  the  West" — the  Roman 
Power  having  then  removed  its  capital  to  Constanti 
nople,  and  being  well  content  with  recognition  as 
the  "  Empire  of  the  East."  That  Western  Europe 
needed  a  change  of  government  Charlemagne 
clearly  saw,  and  as  a  military  conqueror  he  was 
accepted  in  the  iconoclastic  spirit.  His  revival  of 
an  empire  was  successful  for  his  own  stormy  and 
troubled  lifetime ;  but  the  moment  that  powerful 
repressive  influence  had  been  removed,  the  nations 
saw  a  new  thing — the  feudal  system — rise  up  in 
Europe ;  that  very  feudal  system  which  has  since 
been  swept  away  in  blood  and  fire  by  the  first 
throes  of  the  French  revolution.  Like  Csesar 
thinking  of  returning  to  the  ancient  Eoman  king 
ship  ;  like  Charlemagne  hoping  to  reconsolidate 
in  his  own  dynasty  the  early  Roman  empire  ;  like 
the  First  Napoleon,  forgetting  that  his  purple  was 
but  tolerated  as  a  portion  of  his  military  uniform, 
and  that  his  true  character  was  that  of  the  armed 
hand  of  a  democratic  republic — we  now  see  Louis 


144     LOUIS  NAPOLEON'S  "LIFE  OF  CAESAR." 

Napoleon  dreaming  of  a  French  empire  which  is 
to  endure  and  be  perpetuated  in  his  family,  and 
painfully  writing  books  to  prove  that  in  himself 
is  revived  the  Augustan  era  which  only  came  to 
Rome  after  nearly  four  hundred  years  of  an  aristo 
cratic  republic. 

If  the  present  Emperor  of  the  French  be  alive 
half-a-dozen  years  from  now,  he  will  be  quite 
likely  to  appreciate  the  philosophic  truth  of  this 
article — a  philosophy  not  spider-spun  from  dreams, 
and  discolored  by  personal  aspirations,  as  is  his 
own ;  but  drawn  with  disinterested  candor  from  an 
application  of  mere  common-sense  principles  to 
the  great  teachings  of  historical  experience.  In 
the  beheading  of  Louis  Capet,  France  signified 
her  conviction  that  a  republican  form  of  govern 
ment  was  essential  to  her  progress.  That  wish,  in 
any  orderly  sense,  has  never  yet  been  gratified, 
Europe  conspiring  to  forbid  the  experiment,  and 
Franco  having  for  a  brief  time  to  accept  an  "impe- 
rator,"  or  absolute  commander-in-chief,  as  her  only 
safeguard.  The  wish  for  the  republic,  however, 
has  not  died  out,  nor  can  France  forego  the  idea 
until  the  idea  shall — in  the  course  of  centuries, 
perhaps — have  fulfilled  its  mission.  Louis  Napo 
leon  may  translate  books  and  write  commentaries 
to  prove  himself  a  new  Augustus,  and  to  convince 
the  French  people  that  under  his  dynasty  alone 
can  their  happiness  be  thoroughly  developed.  The 


LOUIS  NAPOLEON'S  "LIFE  OF  CLESAK."      145 

whole  thing  is  nonsense,  however — the  nonsense 
of  a  selfish  and  not  large-minded  dreamer,  who 
has  so  much  at  stake  in  the  game  that  he  does  not 
dare  acknowledge,  even  to  himself,  how  hopelessly 
and  inevitably  all  the  chances  are  against  him. 
"Whoever  is  alive  ten  years  from  now  will  see 
France  peacefully  and  proudly  pursuing  the  republi 
can  experiment  from  which  she  was  compelled  to 
desist  more  than  half  a  century  ago,  by  the  arms 
of  the  Holy  Alliance.  Louis  Napoleon,  mean 
while,  may  fancy  himself  a  new  Augustus;  and 
we  have  no  doubt  that,  in  this  light,  his  forthcom 
ing  volume  may  prove  extremely  instructive  and 
amusing. 

Though  not  strictly  in  consonance  with  the  gene 
ral  tenor  of  this  article,  we  here  subjoin  a  view  of 
Napoleon  III.  from  the  easel  of  that  most  per 
fect  and  wonderful  of  the  world's  song-writers — 
Beranger — whose  verses  yet  possess  an  interest  and 
power  in  France  that  not  even  the  Emperor  can 
ignore.  The  lines  here  paraphrased,  we  may  add, 
were  written  by  Beranger  at  a  time  when  Napo 
leon  III.  was  attempting  to  excite  the  enthusiasm 
of  the  students  and  young  revolutionary  classes  of 
Paris  by  representing  that  his  reign  furnished  u  a 
revival  of  the  days  of  the  First  Empire,  in  which 
the  armed  soldier  of  Democracy  led  forth  his 
legions  in  behalf  of  the  Democratic  idea,  and  to 
the  downfall  of  all  regal  tyrannies." 
7 


146      LOUIS  NAPOLEON'S  "LIFE  OF 


BEKANGEB  TO  THE  STUDENTS. 

Poor  youths  !  and  think  you  that  the  gag 

Hath  been  removed  from  Freedom's  lips, 
Or  that  the  old  tri-colored  flag 

Is  now  revived  from  its  eclipse  ? 
My  rhymes,  I  fear,  are  much  to  blame, 

Forget  them — I  their  sense  discard ; 
If  this  they  taught,  I  curse  my  fame — 

Forgive  a  poor  old  witless  bard  ! 

What  times  are  these  they  now  "  revive," 

Were  such  the  days  I  once  did  sing — 
I,  who  have  never  ceased  to  strive 

With  flatterer,  pander,  priest  and  king  ? 
A  mighty  chief  once  claimed  my  songs, 

But  'twas  unsceptred,  under  guard, 
When  Ste.  Helene  avenged  our  wrongs — 

Ah,  pity  an  old  witless  bard ! 


Can  hireling  eloquence  please  our  ears, 

Leverrier  fill  Arago's  place  ? 
Or,  in  despite  the  despot's  fears, 

What  spell  can  Hugo's  love  efface  ? 
And  can  my  king,  all  kind  and  good, 

Require  the  spy's,  the  jailor's  guard  ? 
And  is't  for  him  Rome  reeks  with  blood — 

Pity  a  poor  old  witless  bard  ! 

Aye,  I  have  sometimes  sung  the  sword, 
The  azure  robes  that  victory  brings — 

But  'twas  when  Freedom's  first-born  poured 
Their  blood  to  break  the  league  of  kings ! 


LOUIS  NAPOLEON'S  "LIFE  OF  CLESAK."     147 

But  he — this  cut-throat,  bandit,  spy, 

Whose  sword  G-od's  shrine  could  not  retard, 

With  him  hob-nobbing,  what  were  I  ? 
Forgive  a  poor  old  witless  bard ! 

To  Poland's — to  Italia's  cause 

France  owes  a  debt  that  blood  must  clear ; 
The  cannon  roars — let's  on — but  pause? 

The  ground  is  dangerous  if  so  near. 
Go  carry  freedom  further  yet  ; 

The  Turk — should  we  his  prayer  discard  ? 
Behold  the  League  of  Kings  is  met — 

Forgive  a  poor  old  witless  bard  1 


PARNASSUS  REVISITED. 

MORE   ABOUT   PIRATICAL   PRIVATEERING. 

WHENEVER  the  history  of  Literary  Larceny 
comes  to  be  fully  written,  blackest  upon  the  infa 
mous  record  will  stand  the  name  of  Miles 
O'Reilly,  the  soi-disant  "Soldier-Poet."  In  the 
first  number  of  Mrs.  Grundy,  we  held  up  .before 
our  readers  a  Magic  Mirror  of  Scorn,  in  which  we 
showed  them  clearly  the  form  of  this  Literary 
Profligate,  engaged  in  the  congenial  task  of  bur 
rowing  into  the  grave  of  the  late  Claudius 
Claudianus,  the  last  of  the  Latin  Classic  Poets, 
and  the  protege  of  the  Empress  Serena.  Subse 
quently,  a  lame  attempt  was  made  by  him  in  the 
columns  of  The  Citizen — a  journal  over  which  he 
appears  to  exercise  but  too  much  control — to 
throw  discredit  upon  the  statements  made  by  us 
with  regard  to  that  flagitious  transaction.  He 
pretends  to  reject  the  idea  of  there  being  in  exist 
ence  any  such  edition  of  Claudius  Claudianus 
as  the  one  to  which  we  referred,  viz. :  the  "  Am 
sterdam  edition  by  Burmann,  1760."  To  this  we 
reply,  that  immediately  upon  the  publication  of 
his  "defence,"  we  invited  Mr.  O'Reilly  to  visit 
us  at  our  private  residence,  where  the  vellum- 


PARNASSUS  REVISITED.  149 

bound  treasure  in  question  reposed  majestically 
upon  our  desk,  ready  for  his  inspection.  To  that 
invitation  we  have  never  received  any  response. 
The  Literary  Profligate,  dazzled  by  the  Calcium 
Light  suddenly  brought  to  bear  upon  his  doings, 
retired  for  a  while  into  the  obscurity  so  necessary, 
at  times,  to  the  Owls  and  Bats  by  which  the  Ke- 
public  of  Letters  has  ever  been  infested. 

But  with  characteristic  audacity,  the  piratical 
Private  O'Eeilly  again  emerges  from  his  cavern. 
Friedrich  Gerstaecker  is  this  time  the  victim  of 
our  Literary  Profligate,  whose  "  original  poem," 
"  The  Waste  of  War,"  is  a  literal,  though  rather 
meagre,  translation  from  the  German  poet.  We 
give  both  poems  in  full,  in  order  that  our  readers 
may  judge  for  themselves  : 

THE  WASTE   OF  WAR. 

[Translated  from  the  German  of  Friedrich  Gerstaecker,  by 
Miles  Au-Relius,  and  audaciously  palmed  off  by  him  as 
an  Original  Poem.] 

Three  years  ago,  to-day, 

We  raised  our  hands  to  Heaven, 
And,  on  the  rolls  of  muster, 

Our  names  were  thirty-seven ; 
There  were  just  a  thousand  bayonets, 

And  the  swords  were  thirty-seven, 
As  we  took  the  oath  of  service 

With  our  right  hands  raised  to  Heaven. 


150  PARNUSSUS  REVISITED. 

0,  'twas  a  gallant  day, 

In  memory  still  adored, 
That  day  of  our  sun-bright  nuptials 

With  the  musket  and  the  sword  1 
Shrill  rang  the  fifes,  the  bugles  blared, 

And  beneath  a  cloudless  heaven 
Far  flashed  a  thousand  bayonets, 

And  the  swords  were  thirty-seven 


Of  the  thousand  stalwart  bayonets 

Two  hundred  march  to-day ; 
Hundreds  lie  in  Virginia  swamps, 

And  hundreds  in  Maryland  clay ; 
While  other  hundreds — less  happy — drag 

Their  mangled  limbs  around, 
And  envy  the  deep,  calm,  blessed  sleep 

Of  the  battle-field's  holy  ground. 


For  the  swords — one  night  a  week  ago 

The  remnant,  just  eleven, — 
Gathered  around  a  banqueting-board 

With  seats  for  thirty-seven. 
There  were  two  came  in  on  crutches, 

And  two  had  each  but  a  hand, 
To  pour  the  wine  and  raise  the  cup 

As  we  toasted  "Our  Flag  and  Land!" 


And  the  room  seemed  filled  with  whispers 
As  we  looked  at  the  vacant  seats, 

And  with  choking  throats  we  pushed  aside 
The  rich  but  untasted  meats  ; 


PARNASSUS  REVISITED.  151 

Then  in  silence  we  brimmed  our  glasses 

As  we  stood  up  —  -just  eleven  — 
And  bowed  as  we  drank  to  the  Loved  and  the  Dead 

Who  had  made  us  Thirty-seven  ! 


Uon  griebrtdj  ®erftacfer, 

£)ret  3aljre  jtnb  e§  fjeut'  gerab', 
S5a  famen  jufammen  totr 
3n  biefem  Saale,  im  soften  ©taat 
<5tebenunbbretfiii$  Dfftjict*  ; 

Unb  taufenb  SDiann,  etne  twacf're  ©^aar, 
3)te  fiiJjrtett  wit  jum  Strauf  . 
9lu3  biefem  <Saale,  '§  nun  brei  Saljt, 
JDa  riicften  wir  fwijUd)  au§. 


em  gtof  er  2!ag  tear  ber, 
5)er  nn§  bem  ©c^tcert  getraut, 
2Bte  funfelte  fo  ^ell  unb  t>e^r 
JDie  fc^arfgefc^ttffne  SBraut  ! 


2Bte  funfelten  un§  gu  ©tolg  unb  £ujl 
3n  bet  Sonne  ©lanj  unb  ©trotyl 
2)te  taufeub  ^tingen  son  (Sifen  jufl 
Unb  bie  fiebenunbbretfig  son 


SSon  ben  taufenb  33ajonneten  nun 
3n)ei^unbert  ^altcn  nod}  ©tanb, 
S)enn  ^unberte  in  ben  <Sum£fen  r 
Unb  «§unbert' 


Tlnb  anbere  >§unbert  —  -treu  unb  JTray, 
3)ie  fd)le^pen  —  »erfrit!p!pelt  unb  n)unb, 
$)urd)'<§  £eben  jii^  noc^,  unb  netben  ben 
2)et  Xobtcn  im  bluttgen  ©runb. 


152  PARNASSUS  REVISITED. 


Unb  bte  $ltngen  ?    <§eut  QlBenb  tm  ndntltdjen  Saal 
2>a  fain  aus  bcm  S4lad)tgett)u^l 
2)er  9fteft  jufamntcn — 'itod)  elf  an  bet 
"gitr  ftebenunbbret^ig  ©i 


3wet  fytnften  an  ^riufen  nur  furba§, 
3wei  fatten  je  etne  -§anb, 
5lber  ^oc^  er^ob  bte  cine  ba§  ®(a§ 
Sum  £oafh  //Unfer  ^Banner  itnb  £anb  \" 


Unb  mtt  ^rancn  fuflte  jict)  jeber  Sttcf  , 
3u  otct  (stu^le  jianbcn  ja  leer— 
<£tc  teller  f^oben  fie  Slllc  juriicf, 
9Zur  btc  ©lafcr  langtcn  fte  ^cv, 

Unb  jcf)tt?etgcnb  fd)cnftcn  fte  ttnebet  etn 
Unb  ^oben  ben  &anf  jum  3}?unb  ; 
3)en  Xobtcn  brad)ten  fte  llill  ben  ffietn, 
iDen  (Sdjldfern  tm  bluttgen  ®wnb. 

And  here  a  curious  complication  of  literary 
crime  presents  itself.  Turning  over  the  leaves  of 
our  favorite  Claudius,  we  stumble  upon  the  fol 
lowing  trumpet-tongued  poem,  which  occurs  in 
the  De  Bello  Oettico  —  still  referring,  of  course,  to 
the  Burmann  edition  of  1760  —  and  from  which 
Gerstaecker's  production  has  audaciously  been 
filched  :  — 

DEVASTATIO  BELLI. 

Circum  ter  orbis  volvitur  animus, 
Postquam  supinas  sustulimus  manus 

Septera  et  triginta,  cuspidesque 

Mille  acie  micuere  acuta. 


PARNASSUS  EEVISITED.  153 

Dies  dierum,  nobilis,  inclytus ! 
Dies  fideli  pectore  conditus ! 

Dies  coruscus  nuptiarum, 

Cuspid e  cum  gladio  revincta ! 

Cantus  tubarum,  flamina  tibiae 
Sub  axe  puro  stridula  personant; 

Clare  nitescunt  mille  tela, 

Lucida  ferra  micant  reclusa. 

Ex  mille  duris  cuspidibus  fere 
Restant  ducenti,  Virginias  tenent 

Multos  paludes  (heu!  nefandum), 

Terra  tenet  Mariana  multos. 

Multi  trahentes,  sorte  miserrimi ! 
Confecta  diro  vulnere-  corpora, 

Campo  cruento  somniantes 

Invidia  aocios  tuentur. 

Sol  lumen  orbi  Septimus  attulit, 
Ex  quo  dolentes  reliquiae  ensium, 

Undeni,  ad  integrum  torale 

Conveniunt,  dapibus  paratis. 

Fulti  bacill'is  sunt  miseri  duo, 
Manus  duobus  singula,  qua  tulit 

Cratera,  quum  vexillo  amato, 

Et  patrise  cyatbos  dabamus. 

Plena  et  susurris  interior  domus 
Sedes  relictas  visa  tuentibus, 

Nee  passus  angor  mentis  ore 

Sumere  delicias  saporum. 

7* 


154  PARNASSUS  REVISITED. 

Vinum  coronant,  surgimus  undecim ; 
Stat  qursque  fleno  vertice,  tristius 
Propinat  amissis,  amatis, 
Nee  lacrymse  caruere  amaras. 

The  Germans  are  a  people  noted  for  their  classi 
cal  research,  nor  is  Herr  Gerstaecker  an  exception 
to  the  rule.  If  great  wits  jump  with  simultaneous 
instinct,  so  also  of  eminent  Literary  Profligates ; 
and  it  is  well  for  Miles  O'Eeilly  that  his  name 
should  appear  on  the  docket  of  Literary  Piracies, 
in  juxtaposition  with  that  of  Friedrich  Gerstaecker. 


RESIGNED. 

Never  again  on  the  shoulder 
To  see  our  knightly  bars  ; 
Never  again  on  the  shoulder 

To  see  our  lordly  leaves  ; 
Never  again  to  follow 

The  flag  of  the  Stripes  and  Stars : 
Never  again  to  dream  the  dream 
That  martial  music  weaves. 

Never  again  to  call  Comrade 

To  the  men  who  were  comrades  for  years  ; 
Never  to  hear  the  bugles, 

Thrilling  and  sweet  and  solemn  ; 
Never  again  call  Brother, 

To  the  men  we  think  of  with  tears ; 
Never  again  to  ride  or  march 

In  the  dust  of  the  marching  column. 


PARNASSUS  REVISITED.  155 

Never  again  be  a  sharer 

In  the  first  chilly  hours  of  the  strife, 
When,  at  dawn,  the  skirmish-rifles 

In  opening  chorus  rattle ; 
Never  again  feel  our  manhood 
Kindle  up  into  ruddy  life, 

'Midst  the  hell  of  scenes  and  noises 
In  the  hot  hours  of  the  battle. 

Crippled,  forlorn,  and  useless — 
The  glory  of  life  grown  dim ; 
Brooding  alone  o'er  the  memory 

Of  the  men  who  fell  at  my  side  ; 
Nursing  a  painful  fancy, 

And  nursing  a  shattered  limb — 
Oh,  comrades !  resigning  is  bitter : 
'Twere  better  with  them  to  have  died. 


NEW  MOVEMENT  AGAINST  GRANT. 

TRUE  HISTORY  OF  A  TEMPERANCE  DELEGATION — 
THE  TIPSIEST  TOTAL  ABSTINENCE  PARTY  EVER 
KNOWN. 

ST.  Louis,  Mo.,  August  19,  1864. 

THE  SECESH  THINK  IF  GRANT  REMAINS  IN  POWER 
THEY  ARE  GONE. 

MY  DEAR  HUDSON  :  I  have  to  announce  a  great 
moral  revolution !  John  Secesh  in  these  parts  has 
turned  temperance  doctrinaire.  He  is  for  total 
abstinence.  He  is  for  cashiering  any  and  every 
officer  who  can  be  proved  to  have  imbibed  more 
than  seven  thimblefuls  of  lager  in  any  seven  con 
secutive  days !  All  the  ladies  who  wear  cherry 
and  white  ribbons  in  their  bonnets  are  enthusiastic 
in  the  cause  of  anti-alcoholic  imbibations.  They 
are  full  of  sincerest  sorrow  for  the  "  unhappy 
tendency "  of  General  Grant.  They  are  eager 
that  he  may  be  at  once  relieved  from  command 
and  sent  to  recuperate  in  some  cold-water  asylum. 
"  It  is  the  only  way  he  can  be  saved,"  they  say ; 
and  "  the  only  way  in  which  the  falling  fortunes 
of  the  rebellion  can  be  saved,"  is  at  the  bottom  of 
their  thoughts, 


NEW  MOVEMENT  AGAINST  GRANT.          157 

In  a  word,  the  John  Seceshes  of  St.  Louis  have 
been  busy  for  the  last  month  in  mysteriously  but 
actively  circulating  rumors  to  the  effect  that  the 
Lieutenant-General,  on  whose  genius  the  fortunes 
of  the  Union  are  staked,  has  not  been  sober  for  a 
month,  but  that  he  continually  dwelleth  in  the 
headquarters  of  "Beast  Butler,"  who  feedeth  said 
Lieutenant-General  upon  forty-rod  whiskey  and 
aquafortis  brandy — the  "  Beast "  aforesaid  hoping 
to  inherit  the  three  stars  whenever  Grant  shall 
have  "  cashed  in  his  checks  "  under  the  life-com 
pelling  sceptre  of  Kincf  Alcohol ! 


GEORGE  N.  SANDERS  AND  SENATOR  CHANDLER  AS 
TEMPERANCE  DELEGATES. 

So  great  is  the  agitation  of  John  and  Jeannette 
Secesh  upon  this  point  that  they  are  preparing  to 
repeat  the  experiment  of  a  temperance  delega 
tion  to  wait  upon  the  President,  with  a  protest 
against  his  retention  of  "  a  common  drunkard  "  in 
command  of  the  chief  army  of  the  Union.  It  is 
said  that  Mr.  George  Noodle  Sanders,  at  present 
of  Canada,  has  been  offered  the  chairmanship  of 
this  new  temperance  movement ;  and  that  Senator 
Chandler,  of  Michigan,  will  represent,  as  secretary, 
the  extreme  abolition  total-abstinence  sentiment  of 
the  entire  country.  A  special  train  is  to  be  hired 
for  the  use  of  the  delegation,  so  that  decent  travel- 


158    NEW  MOVEMENT  AGAINST  GRANT. 

lers  from  St.  Louis  to  tne  East  may  not  be  worried 
by  the  ultra-zealous  temperance  demonstrations 
of  the  members  of  the  committee ;  and  in  the  instruc 
tions  of  tke  "  Total  Abstinence  Convention  "  under 
which  the  delegates  are  to  act,  it  is  resolved  that 
"  no  member  of  the  secesh  temperance  delegation 
to  the  President,  for  the  removal  of  General  Grant, 
shall  carry  with  him  during  his  journey  from  St. 
Louis  to  "Washington,  over  six  two-gallon  demi 
johns  of  Bourbon  for  his  private  use." 

FIRST   "TEMPERANCE  DELEGATION"   AGAINST 
GENERAL  GRANT. 

The  fuss  that  is  now  being  made  here  by  the 
rebel  sympathizers  over  the  alleged  backslidings 
of  the  Lieutenant-General,  recalls  to  my  mind  very 
forcibly  a  scene  of  which  I  was  witness,  just  pre 
vious  to  the  capture  of  Fort  Donelson.  The  actors 
in  the  matter  were  different;  but  the  anecdote 
falls  in  as  a  capital  illustration  of  the  present  hub 
bub.  The  thing  is  also  memorable  in  itself,  as 
embracing  the  only  public  joke  of  which  Major- 
General  Henry  Wager  Halleck  has  ever  been 
known  to  be  guilty. 

While  Grant  was  elaborating  his  preparations 
to  pass  down  the  Mississippi  with  that  magnificent 
and  resistless  energy  which  finally  tore  open  the 
rebel  lockjaw  of  the  river  at  Fort  Donelson, 


NEW  MOVEMENT  AGAINST  GRANT.         159 

Columbus,  Nashville,  Pittsburg  Landing,  Ticks- 
burg,  and  finally  Port  Hudson,  the  John  Seceshes 
of  those  early  days  became  alarmed  at  his  delibe 
rate  and  unceasing  energy,  and  at  once  commenced 
reviving,  with  exaggerations,  unspeakable  old 
stories  and  old  lies  in  reference  to  certain  alleged 
indiscretions  of  his  early  habits.  The  lies  "  took  " 
with  the  rapidity  which  is  usual  in  such  cases ; 
and  before  a  fortnight  from  their  coinage  in  the 
rebel  mint,  we  had  a  grave  and  dolorous  editorial 
from  the  temperance  and  bran-bread  philosophers 
of  the  New  York  Tribune,  pointing  out  Brigadier- 
General  Grant  as  a  melancholy  example  of  the 
debasing  and  ruinous  effects  of  too  much  alcohol. 
The  New  York  Tribune  philosophers,  in  fact,  made 
him  very  much  like  the  drunken  helot,  who  was 
exhibited  by  Spartan  fathers  to  their  children 
as  the  best  argument  in  favor  of  a  Neal  Dow 
Maine  Law, 


GOVERNOR  DICK  YATES  AND   HIS  ALLIES. 

"Well,  the  matter  at  length  went  so  far  that  Gov. 
Dick  Yates,  of  Illinois — himself  a  notorious  tem 
perance  advocate — gave  his  sanction  to  the  getting 
up  of  a  "  temperance  delegation"  from  the  State, 
charged  with  proceeding  to  Washington,  where 
they  should  lay  before  the  President  an  energetic 
protest  against  his  allowing  "  forty-two  thousand 


160         NEW  MOVEMENT  AGAINST  GRANT. 

sons  of  Illinois,  then  in  the  Army  of  the  Missis 
sippi,  to  have  their  lives  placed  in  jeopardy  under 
command  of  a  common  drunkard."  This  delega 
tion  was  headed  by  Judge  Davis,  now  of  the 
Supreme  Court,  and  had  among  its  members  such 
political  friends  of  the  President  as  Leonard  Swett, 
Minister  Judd,  and  other  celebrated  politicians  of 
the  Sucker  State. 

PEESIDENT  LINCOLN  ON  THE  RAMPAGE. 

Mr.  Lincoln  did  not  know  what  to  do  with  the 
matter.  He  had  read  the  New  York  Tribune's 
article,  and  was  now  besieged  by  the  first  tem 
perance  delegation  in  regard  to  "  General  Grant's 
habits."  He  telegraphed  in  cypher  to  General 
Halleck,  who  was  then  in  command  of  the  Missis 
sippi  department,  setting  forth  what  the  Tribune 
said,  what  the  total  abstinence  committee  said, 
and  what  he  (President  Lincoln)  thought  should 
at  once  be  done.  This  was  nothing  more  nor  less, 
than  that  General  Halleck  should  issue  an  order 
summarily  and  disgracefully  dismissing  Grant  from 
the  service  for  being"  afflicted  with  alcoholic  habits. 

GENERAL  HALLECK    CAN  T    SEE    IT,    AND    GROWS 
INDIGNANT. 

Halleck  at  once  telegraphed  back  an  indignant 
reply.  If  the  charge  were  true,  or  had  a  shadow 


NEW   MOVEMENT   AGAINST   GRANT.          161 

of  truth  in  it,  the  first  head  to  fall  should  not  be 
Gen.  Grant's — it  should  be  General  Halleck's. 
If  he,  commanding  in  chief  the  department,  could 
expose  his  greatest  army  to  defeat  under  such  a 
person  as  the  President  seemed  to  believe  General 
Grant,  it  was  very  clear  that  his  Excellency  should 
at  once  remove  him  (General  Halleck)  from  the 
position  he  so  manifestly  was  unqualified  to  fill. 
In  conclusion,  the  Major-General  commanding  the 
Mississippi  department  would  respectfully  submit 
to  his  Excellency,  that  temperance  delegations 
were  very  excellent  things  in  their  proper  place — 
the  editorial  rooms  of  the  New  York  Tribune  and 
other  synagogues  of  the  saints,  wherein  the  "total 
abstinence  beverages"  (not  "spirits")  of  "just 
men  were  made  perfect ;"  but  that,  so  far  as  the 
Army  of  the  Mississippi  went,  he  wished  to  have 
nothing  to  say  to  them,  and  would  prefer  "  Grant's 
little  finger,  even  if  tipsy,  to  the  carcases  of  the 
whole  blessed  caboodle  !  " 


INTENSE    DISGUST    AT    WASHINGTON — THE     TEM 
PERANCE   MEN  VOTED   A  NUISANCE. 

Intense  disgust  followed  the  receipt  at  Wash 
ington  of  this  telegram.  The  temperance  dele 
gation  from  Illinois  took  "  tall  drinks  all  round" 
many  times,  and  then  acceded  to  the  President's 
proposition  (Mr.  Lincoln  being  anxious  to  get  rid 


162    NEW  MOVEMENT  AGAINST  GEANT. 

of  them,  as  they  were  personal  friends  and  a 
heavy  drain  upon  his  whiskey-cellar) ;  and  the 
proposition  was  this :  They  were  to  proceed  in  a 
body  to  St.  Louis,  Governor  Dick  Yates  footing 
their  travelling  expenses  and  bar-room  bills  ;  and 
on  their  arrival  there,  such  of  them  as  were  able 
to  walk  should  walk,  and  such  of  them  as  could 
not  walk  should  be  carried  in  carriages  or  wheel 
barrows  to  General  Halleck's  headquarters,  where 
they  should  lay  before  said  General  their  proofs 
and  affidavits  (mainly  signed  by  members  of 
the  Christian  and  Sanitary  Commissions,  together 
with  a  raft  of  secessionists  and  cotton  speculators) 
as  to  General  Grant's  "deplorable  excesses"  in  the 
tippling  line. 


THE  "TOTAL  ABSTINENCE' 

WHEELBARROWS  BEFORE  GEN.  HALLECK. 

Well,  to  make  a  long  story  short,  down  they 
came,  and  were  helped  or  carried  by  a  strong 
delegation  of  porters,  waiters,  and  all  available 
black  help,  up  the  stoop  of  the  Planters'  House, 
and  thence  to  their  respective  rooms,  which  were 
secured  by  Captain  (now  Colonel)  J.  Wilson 
Shaffer,  of  Illinois — then  a  quartermaster,  and  a 
very  excellent  one,  on  the  staff  of  General  Hunter. 
Had  Shaffer  not  been  there,  the  whole  "  tempe 
rance  delegation"  would,  beyond  doubt,  have  been 


NEW  MOVEMENT  AGAINST  GKANT.          163 

kicked  into  the  street  or  sent  for  lodgings  to  the 
calaboose,  as  Palmer,  the  clerk,  refused  to  give 
them  entertainment  unless  they  would  duly  regis 
ter  their  names  in  the  hotel  book  ;  and  there  was 
not  a  man  in  the  crowd  who  could  see  less  than  a 
dozen  pens  and  a  small  army  of  books  when  the 
clerk  offered  him  a  single  quill  and  pointed  to  the 
solitary  ledger. 

THE  TAB  A-BOILING  AND  THE    FEATHERS    BEING 
COLLECTED. 

Of  course  for  that  night  there  could  be  no  for 
mal  visit  to  General  Halleck,  who  was  then  stay 
ing  in  the  hotel,  accompanied  by  General  Cullum, 
his  Chief  of  Staff;  Col.  Kelton,  his  Assistant 
Adjutant-General;  Col.  Thorn,  his  Chief  of  Topo 
graphical  Engineers;  the  lamented  McPherson; 
Col.  Cutts,  brother  to  Mrs.  Douglas,  and  a  young 
Major  O'Keilly  of  the  Adjutant-General's  Depart 
ment,  whose  first  name  I  happen  to  forget.  Cap 
tain  Shaffer,  however,  gleaned  enough  from  the 
tipsy  hiccoughings  and  grunts  of  his  old  friends 
from  Illinois  to  form  a  right  estimate  of  their 
general  business.  Great  was  the  fun  at  Halleck's 
table  and  in  his  adjacent  headquarters  that  night ; 
but  when  the  matter  came  to  be  somewhat  noised 
abroad,  it  was  found  necessary  to  place  a  guard  of 
soldiers  at  the  door  of  each  slumbrous  member  of 


164    NEW  MOVEMENT  AGAINST  GRANT. 

the  "  Temperance  Delegation,"  in  order  to  prevent 
the  officers  and  men  of  Grant's  army  who  chanced 
to  be  in  town  from  supplying  said  members  with 
a  coat  of  tar  and  feathers  as  an  appropriate  uni 
form  in  which  their  next  morning's  visit  to  Gene 
ral  Halleck  should  be  paid. 

GRANT  "  MOVES  ON  THE  ENEMY'S  WORKS" — FORT 
DONELSON    CAPTURED. 

Next  morning — Sunday  morning — proved  an 
eventful  one.  Long  before  the  "  total  abstinence" 
representatives  had  commenced,  with  dizzy  heads 
and  trembling  hands,  to  ring  for  Congress  water 
and  cocktails,  great  news  had  reached  the  busy 
headquarters  of  the  general  commanding.  Fort 
Donelson  had  fallen  before  the  unmatched  prowess 
and  resistless  energy  of  General  Grant.  He  had 
"  moved  upon  the  enemy's  works,"  and  they  were 
his  !  He  had  fifteen  thousand  prisoners,  the  whole 
armament  of  the  fort,  which  covered  many  acres, 
and  Floyd  was  a  miserable  fugitive !  This  victory 
necessitated  the  evacuation  by  the  enemy  of  Bowl 
ing  Green  and  Columbus.  It  threw  open  the 
Mississippi  to  Pittsburg  Landing,  and  was  a  veri 
fication  in  full  of  those  fears  of  the  secessionists 
within  our  lines,  which  had  first  prompted  them  to 
start  the  lie  that  "  Grant  was  a  common  drunkard, 
and  should  be  at  once  removed." 


NEW  MOVEMENT  AGAINST  GKANT.         165 


THE  BULLETIN  OF  VICTORY,   AND  ITS  CONSE 
QUENCES. 

It  was  not  until  about  ten  in  the  morning  that 
General  Halleck  had  sufficient  leisure  from  the 
more  important  and  pressing  cares  of  that  critical 
moment  to  think  of  putting  up  on  the  bulletin 
board  of  the  Planters'  House  the  announcement 
of  our  victory.  The  bulletin  was  then  written 
and  handed  to  an  orderly  sergeant  to  be  placed 
before  the  public. 

By  this  time  the  John  Seceshes  of  St.  Louis 
were  in  full  force  in  the  office  and  main  corridor 
of  the  hotel.  They  were  anxious,  for  they  had 
heard  whispers  of  bad  news  to  their  cause ;  and 
they  were  also  anxious  as  to  the  state  of  their 
friends  of  the  "  Temperance  Delegation  from  Illi 
nois."  In  truth,  these  gentlemen  of  the  "  total 
abstinence  party"  needed  care  and  cocktails,  baths 
and  brandy -smashes,  much  barberizing  and  many 
juleps,  before  they  could  be  revived  into  any 
appearance  of  respectability.  The  John  Seceshes, 
however,  were  assiduous;  and  by  the  time  the 
orderly  sergeant,  followed  by  General  Halleck 
and  staff,  appeared  in  the  corridor,  the  "  members 
of  the  temperance  delegation"  had  straightened 
themselves  up  into  that  condition  of  "  unearthly 
sobriety"  which  your  old  toper  (who  has  a  pew  in 
church  and  marriageable  daughters)  is  always  cer- 


166         NEW  MOVEMENT  AGAINST  GRANT. 

tain  to  assume  when  recovering  from  a  last  night's 
debauch,  and  with  just  enough  "  red  eye"  in  his 
stomach  to  make  breakfast  a  possibility. 

GEN.  HALLECK'S  SPEECH  AND  JOKE — THE  ONLY 
JOKE  OF  HIS  LIFE. 

On  the  posting  up  of  the  bulletin  great  was  the 
hubbub  and  curious  the  varying  sensations  obser 
vable  on  the  faces  of  the  crowd.  John  Secesh  was 
in  despair ;  the  "  temperance  delegation"  looked 
as  if  no  hole  could  be  too  small  for  the  fattest  man 
among  them  to  crawl  out  through ;  the  loyalists, 
in  and  out  of  uniform,  rent  the  air  with  cheers ; 
Halleck  puffed  his  cigar  with  vigor,  and  General 
Cullum,  just  back  from  Cairo,  rubbed  his  thin 
hands  exultingly. 

"  Palmer,"  called  out  General  Halleck  to  the 
clerk,  "  send  up  two  dozen  baskets  of  champagne, 
and  open  them  here  for  the  benefit  of  the  crowd." 
(Loud  cheers,  the  temperance  delegation  look 
ing  sheepish.)  "  And,  Palmer,"  continued  the 
General,  "  I  want  you  to  give  public  notice  that  I 
shall  suspect  the  loyalty  of  any  male  resident  of 
St.  Louis  who  can  be  found  sober  enough  to  walk 
or  speak  within  the  next  half  hour." 


NEW  MOVEMENT  AGAINST  GRANT.      167 

THE  "TOTAL  ABSTINENCE"  MEN  GET  A  BRIGHT 
IDEA. 

How  the  "total  abstinence  men"  felt  at  this 
precise  juncture  I  cannot  say ;  but  history  gives 
full  record  of  what  they  did.  A  bright  idea  seized 
Judge  Davis  that  by  cheering  and  yelling  the 
loudest  for  General  Grant,  the  character  of  their 
mission  might  be  forgotten.  Davis  yelled  and 
cheered.  Leonard  Swett  saw  the  point  at  once, 
and  joined  in  chorus.  Minister  Judd  only  blamed 
himself  that  the  same  happy  thought  had  not 
occurred  to  him  before  occurring  to  Judge  Davis; 
and,  as  the  upshot  of  the  whole,  the  entire  "  tem 
perance  party"  became  the  most  vociferous  in  the 
c'orridor  in  their  mad  huzzahs  for  the  "Great 
Eiver  Horse  of  the  Mississippi."  The  champagne 
provided  by  General  Halleck,  however,  was  too 
cold  for  their  inflamed  and  furious  stomachs. 
They  secured,  through  Shaffer's  aid,  a  large  empty 
hall,  sometimes  used  as  a  ballroom,  in  the  back 
part  of  the  Planters'  House ;  and  there,  through 
out  that  day,  with  many  a  pailful  of  "  red  eye" 
and  many  a  bucket  of  spiced-  brandy,  they  held 
high  revel,  dancing  like  enthusiastic  monomaniacs 
around  the  room  and  huzzahing  for  General  Grant 
at  the  top  of  their  voices — "  Wilse  Shaffer"  mean 
while  having  turned  the  key  on  the  whole  party, 
so  that  none  but  friends  should  see  their  folly. 


168         NEW  MOVEMENT  AGAINST  GRANT. 

Thus  ended  the  first  "  John  Secesh  temperance 
delegation"  against  General  Grant.  Are  we  now 
to  have  another,  under  the  auspices  of  George 
K.  Sanders  and  company?  I  have  great  hopes 
that,  as  a  corollary  of  the  new  John  Secesh  tem 
perance-movement  against  the  greatest  of  our 
soldiers,  we  shall  soon  hear  of  General  Grant 
quietly  smoking  his  cigar  in  the  mansion  hereto 
fore  occupied  by  Mr.  Jefferson  Davis.  It  is  only 
when  the  rebels  are  utterly  hopeless  and  helpless, 
that  they  have  resort  to  this  miserable  trick  of 
personal  assault  and  slander. 

In  this  connexion,  and  as  one  of  the  j oiliest 
camp  drinking-songs  that  we  can  at  this  moment 
recall,  perhaps  Private  O'Reilly's  verses  on 
"  Winter  Quarters,"  which  are  known  to  be  favor 
ites  with  Grant's  staff,  if  not  with  the  good  and 
gallant  General  himself,  may  here  be  excused  for 
their  intrusion.  It  may  be  supposed  they  were 
written  in  that  period  of  wintry  repose  when  the 
vast  camps  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  were 
visited  by  swarms  of  ladies,  and  rang  with  the 
"sounds  of  revelry  by  night." 

WINTER    QUARTERS. 

Comrades,  'tis  a  stormy  winter, 

And  the  snow-drift  rises  higher  ; 
Quick,  and  fling  a  larger  splinter 
On  the  fire ! 


NEW  MOVEMENT  AGAINST  GRANT.         169 

Let  the  loud  winds  moaning  o'er  us, 

O'er  the  warm  and  shingled  thatch, 
Hear  our  bacchanalian  chorus, 
Glee  and  catch ! 


Comrades !  List  the  wintry  battle, 

See  the  white  and  hideous  gloom — 
How  the  doors  and  windows  rattle 

In  the  room  1 
Draw  the  curtains,  cards  and  drinking, 

Woman's  lip  and  wit  refined, 
These  may  save  the  sin  of  thinking 
Heaven  unkind. 


Comrades,  till  the  dreary  morning 

Shine  above  the  waste  of  snow, 

Let  delight,  at  prudence  scorning, 

Rule  below ! 
Fill  the  flagon — each  a  brimmer, 

Ruby,  fragrant,  warm  and  strong — 
Blood  is  cold,  but  it  will  simmer 
Before  long. 


Comrades,  fill  a  deeper  flagon, 

See  the  golden  apples  gleam — 
Fruit  of  joy !  Oh,  slay  the  dragon 

Guarding  them  1 
Life's  an  auction ;  please  the  palate, 

Purchase  every  costly  toy, 
And  'till  death  lets  fall  his  mallet, 
Bid  for  joy ! 


170         NEW  MOVEMENT  AGAINST  GRANT. 

Comrades,  hear  the  hollow  moaning 

Of  the  tempest  o'er  the  wold ; 
Earth  is  white  with  fright  and  groaning 

In  the  cold  ; 
Some  there  be,  perchance,  who  wander 

Shivering,  houseless,  loveless,  lone  ; 
These  are  thoughts  to  make  us  fonder 
Of  our  own  1 

Clinking  glasses — what  surpasses 

The  rich  melody  ye  chime  I 
How  ye  brighten,  cheer  and  lighten 

Winter  time ! 
Woman's  lip  is  ripe  and  melting 

Sweeter  far  than  bloom  of  rose, 
For,  when  storms  around  are  pelting, 
See — it  glows ! 

Woman  fairest — Lydia  dearest ! 

Love  you  not  the  whirling  storm? 
Let  it  mutter,  while  we  utter 

Whispers  warm: 
Nestle  closer !     Let  thy  tresses 

Bathe  and  shade  my  panting  heart — • 
Winter,  bringing  such  caresses, 
Ne'er  depart  1 

Friends,  brim  up  a  richer  beaker 

Than  ye  e'er  have  quaffed  before, 
For  the  storm  strikes,  bleak  and  bleaker, 

On  the  door ; 

Till  the  lightning  cleave  the  shingle, 
And  the  snow-drift  chill  the  bowl, 
Sing,  and  drink,  and  kiss  and  mingle 
Soul  with  soul  I 


KECOLLECTIOlSrS  OF  THE  WAR 

ORIGIN  AND  HISTORY  OF  OUR  FIRST  BLACK  REGI 
MENT. — HOW  IT  WAS  STARTED  WITHOUT  AU 
THORITY  OR  ORDER. 

CHAPTER  I. 

BLACK  troops  are  now  an  established  success, 
and  hereafter — while  the  race  can  furnish  enough 
able-bodied  males — the  probability  would  seem 
that  one-half  the  permanent  naval  and  military 
forces  of  the  United  States  will  be  drawn  from  this 
material,  under  the  guidance  and  control  of  white 
officers.  To-day  there  is  much  competition  among 
the  field  and  staff  officers  of  our  white  volunteers 
— more  especially  in  those  regiments  about  being 
disbanded — to  obtain  commissions  of  like  or  even 
lower  grade  in  the  colored  regiments  of  Uncle 
Sam.  General  Casey's  board  of  examination  can 
not  keep  in  session  long  enough,  nor  dismiss  in 
competent  aspirants  quick  enough,  to  keep  down 
the  vast  throngs  of  veterans,  with  and  without 
shoulder-straps,  who  are  now  seeking  various 
grades  of  command  in  the  colored  brigades  of  the 
Union. 

Over  this  result  all  intelligent  men  will  rejoice 


172  RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR. 

— the  privilege  of  being  either  killed  or  wounded 
in  battle,  or  stricken  down  by  the  disease,  toils, 
and  privations  incident  to  the  life  of  a  marching 
soldier,  not  belonging  to  that  class  of  prerogatives 
for  the  exclusive  enjoyment  of  which  men  of 
sense,  and  with  higher  careers  open  to  them,  will 
long  contend. 

Looking  back,  however,  but  a  few  years  to  the 
organization  of  the  first  regiment  of  black  troops 
in  the  department  of  the  South — what  a  change 
in  public  opinion  are  we  compelled  to  recognise  ! 
In  sober  verity,  War  is  not  only  the  sternest,  but 
the  quickest,  of  all  teachers ;  and  contrasting  the 
Then  and  Now  of  our  negro  regiments,  as  we 
propose  to  do  in  this  sketch,  the  contrast  will  for 
cibly  recall  Galileo's  obdurate  assertion  that  "  the 
world  still  moves." 

Be  it  known,  then,  that  the  first  regiment  of 
black  troops  raised  in  our  recent  war,  was  raised 
in  the  spring  of  1862  by  the  commanding  general 
of  the  department  of  the  South,  of  his  own 
motion,  and  without  any  direct  authority  of  law, 
order,  or  even  sanction  from  the  President,  the 
Secretary  of  War,  or  our  Houses  of  Congress.  It 
was  done  by  General  Hunter  as  "  a  military 
necessity"  under  very  peculiar  circumstances,  to 
be  detailed  hereafter;  and,  although  repudiated 
at  first  by  the  Government — as  were  so  many 
other  measures  originated  in  the  same  quarter — 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR.  173 

it  was  finally  adopted  as  the  settled  policy  of  the 
country  and  of  our  military  system ;  as  have  like 
wise  since  been  adopted  all  the  other  original 
measures  for  which  this  officer,  at  the  time  of 
their  first  announcement,  was  made  to  suffer  both 
official  rebuke  and  the  violently  vituperative 
denunciation  of  more  than  one-half  the  Northern 
press. 

In  the  spring  of  1862,  General  Hunter,  finding 
himself  with  less  than  eleven  thousand  men  under 
his  command,  and  charged  with  the  duty  of  hold 
ing  the  whole  tortuous  and  broken  sea-coast  of 
Georgia,  South  Carolina,  and  Florida,  had  applied 
often,  and  in  vain,  to  the  authorities  at  Washing 
ton  for  reinforcements.  All  the  troops  that  could 
be  gathered  in  the  North  were  less  than  sufficient 
for  the  continuous  drain  of  General  McClellan's 
great  operations  against  the  enemy's  capital ;  and 
the  reiterated  answer  of  the  War  Department 
was :  "  You  must  get  along  as  best  you  can.  Not 
a  man  from  the  North  can  be  spared." 

On  the  mainland  of  the  three  States  nominally 
forming  the  Department  of  the  South,  the  flag  of 
the  Union  had  no  permanent  foothold,  save  at 
Fernandina,  St.  Augustine,  and  some  few  unim 
portant  points  along  the  Florida  coast.  It  was  on 
the  Sea-islands  of  Georgia  and  South  Carolina 
that  our  troops  were  stationed,  and  continually 
engaged  in  fortifying — the  enemy  being  every- 


174  RECOLLECTIONS   OF  THE   WAR. 

where  visible,  and  in  force,  across  the  narrow 
creeks  dividing  us  from  the  mainland;  and 
mutual  raids — they  across  to  our  islands,  and  we 
back  to  their  mainland,  and  up  their  creeks,  with 
a  few  gunboats  to  help  us — being  the  order  of  the 
day :  yea,  and  yet  oftener,  of  the  night. 

No  reinforcements  to  be  had  from  the  North  ; 
vast  fatigue  duties  in  throwing  up  earthworks 
imposed  on  our  insufficient  garrisons  ;  the  enemy 
continually  increasing  both  in  insolence  and  num 
bers  ;  our  only  success  the  capture  of  Fort 
Pulaski,  sealing  up  Savannah  ;  and  this  victory 
off-set,  if  not  fully  counterbalanced,  by  many 
minor  gains  of  the  enemy ; — this  was  about  the 
condition  of  affairs  as  seen  from  the  headquarters 
fronting  Port  Koyal  bay,  when  General  Hunter 
one  fine  morning,  with  twirling  glasses,  puckered* 
lips,  and  dilated  nostrils — (he  had  just  received 
another  "  don't-bother-us-for-reinforcements"  dis 
patch  from  Washington) — announced  his  inten 
tion  of  "  forming  negro  regiments,"  and  compel 
ling  "  every  able-bodied  black  man  in  the  depart 
ment  to  fight  for  the  freedom  which  could  not  but 
be  the  issue  of  our  war." 

This,  resolution  being  taken,  was  immediately 
acted  upon  with  vigor,  the  General  causing  all  the 
necessary  orders  to  be  issued,  and  taking  upon 
himself,  as  his  private  burden,  the  responsibility 
for  all  the  irregular  issues  of  arms,  clothing, 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAE.  175 

equipments,  and  rations  involved  in  collecting  and 
organizing  the  first  experimental  negro  regiment. 
The  men  he  intended  to  pay,  at  first,  by  placing 
them  as  laborers  on  the  pay-rolls  of  the  chief 
quartermaster  ;  but  it  was  his  hope  that  the 
obvious  necessity  and  wisdom  of  the  measure  he 
had  thus  presumed  to  adopt  without  authority, 
would  secure  for  it  the  immediate  approval  of  the 
higher  authorities,  and  the  necessary  orders  to 
cover  the  required  pay  and  supply-issues  of  the 
force  he  had  in  contemplation.  If  his  course 
should  be  indorsed  by  the  War  Department,  well 
and  good ;  if  it  were  not  so  indorsed,  why  he  had 
enough  property  of  his  own  to  pay  back  to  the 
Government  all  he  was  irregularly  expending  in 
this  experiment. 

But  now,  on  the  very  threshold  of  this  novel 
enterprise,  came  the  first — and  it  was  not  a  trivial 
— difficulty.  Where  could  experienced  officers  be 
found  for  such  an  organization  ?  "  What !  com 
mand  niggers!"  was  the  reply — if  possible  more 
amazed  than  scornful — of  nearly  every  competent 
young  lieutenant  or  captain  of  volunteers  to  whom 
the  suggestion  of  commanding  this  class  of 
troops  was  made.  "Never  mind,"  said  Hunter, 
when  this  trouble  was  brought  to  his  notice  ;  "  the 
fools  or  bigots  who  refuse  are  enough  punished  by 
their  refusal.  Before  two  years  they  will  be  com 
peting  eagerly  for  the  commissions  they  now  reject." 


176  RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR. 

Straightway  there  was  issued  a  circular  to  all 
commanding  officers  in  the  department,  directing 
them  to  announce  to  the  non-commissioned  officers 
and  men  of  their  respective  commands  that  com 
missions  in  the  "  South  Carolina  Kegiments  of 
Colored  Infantry,"  would  be  given  to  all  deserv 
ing  and  reputable  sergeants,  corporals,  and  men 
who  would  appear  at  department  headquarters, 
and  prove  able  to  pass  an  examination  in  the 
manual  and  tactics  before  a  Board  of  Examiners, 
which  was  organized  in  a  general  order  of  con 
current  date.  Capt.  Arthur  M.  Kinzie,  of  Chi 
cago,  aide-de-camp— now  of  Hancock's  Veteran 
Eeserve  Corps — was  detailed  as  Colonel  of  the 
regiment,  giving  place,  subsequently,  in  conse 
quence  of  injured  health,  to  the  present  Brig.- 
Gen.  James  D.  Fessenden,  then  a  captain  in  the 
Berdan  Sharpshooters,  though  detailed  as  acting 
aide-de-camp  on  Gen.  Hunter's  staff.  Captain 
Kinzie,  we  may  add,  was  General  Hunter's 
nephew,  and  his  appointment  as  Colonel  was  made 
partly  on  the  grounds  of  superior  fitness ;  and 
partly  to  prove — so  violent  was  then  the  prejudice 
against  negro  troops — that  the  Commanding  Gen 
eral  asked  nothing  of  others  which  he  was  not 
willing  that  one  of  his  own  flesh  and  blood  should 
be  engaged  in. 

The  work  was  now  fairly  in  progress,  but  the 
barriers  of  prejudice  were  not  to  be  lightly  over- 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR.  177 

thrown.  Non-commissioned  officers  and  men  of 
the  right  stamp,  and  able  to  pass  the  examination 
requisite,  were  scarce  articles.  Few  had  the  hardi 
hood  or  moral  courage  to  face  the  screaming,  riot 
ous  ridicule  of  their  late  associates  in  the  white 
regiments.  "We  remember  one  very  striking 
instance  in  point,  which  we  shall  give  as  a  sample 
of  the  whole. 

Our  friend  Mr.  Charles  F.  Briggs,  of  this  city, 
so  well  known  in  literary  circles,  had  a  nephew 
enlisted  in  that  excellent  regiment  the  48th  New 
York,  then  garrisoning  Fort  Pulaski  and  the 
works  on  Tybee  Island.  This  youngster  had 
raised  himself  by  gallantry  and  good  conduct  to 
be  a  non-commissioned  officer;  and  Mr.  Briggs 
was  anxious  that  he  should  be  commissioned, 
according  to  his  capacities,  in  the  colored  troops 
then  being  raised.  The  lad  was  sent  for,  passed 
his  examination  with  credit,  and  was  immediately 
offered  a  first-lieutenancy,  with  the  promise  of 
being  made  captain  when  his  company  should  be 
filled  up  to  the  required  standard — probably  with 
in  ten  days.  The  inchoate  first-lieutenant  was  in 
ecstasies  ;  a  gentleman  by  birth  and  education,  he 
longed  for  the  shoulder-straps.  He  appeared  joy 
ously  grateful ;  and  only  wanted  leave  to  run  up 
to  Fort  Pulaski  for  the  purpose  of  collecting  his 
traps,  taking  leave  of  his  former  comrades,  and 
procuring  his  discharge-papers  from  Col.  Barton. 
8* 


178  RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR. 

Two  days  after  that  came  a  note  to  department 
headquarters  respectfully  declining  the  commis 
sion  !  He  had  been  laughed  and  jeered  out  of 
accepting  a  captaincy  by  his  comrades  ;  and  this — 
though  we  remember  it  more  accurately  from  our 
correspondence  with  Mr.  Briggs — was  but  one  of 
many  score  of  precisely  similar  cases. 

At  length,  however,  officers  were  found ;  the 
ranks  were  filled  ;  the  men  learned  with  uncom 
mon  quickness,  having  the  imitativeness  of  so 
many  monkeys  apparently,  and  such  excellent 
ears  for  music  that  all  evolutions  seemed  to  come 
to  them  by  nature.  At  once,  despite  all  hostile 
influences,  the  negro  regiment  became  one  of  the 
lions  of  the  South  ;  and  strangers  visiting  the 
department,  crowded  out  eagerly  to  see  its  evening 
parades  and  Sunday-morning  inspections.  By  a 
strange  coincidence,  its  camp  was  pitched  on  the 
lawn  and  around  the  mansion  of  General  Dray- 
ton,  who  commanded  the  rebel  works  guarding 
Hilton  Head,  Port  Royal,  and  Beaufort,  when  the 
same  were  first  captured  by  the  joint  naval  and 
military  operations  under  Admiral  Du  Pont  and 
General  Timothy  W.  Sherman — General  Dray- 
ton's  brother,  Captain  Dray  ton  of  our  navy,  hav 
ing  command  of  one  of  the  best  vessels  in  the 
attacking  squadron  ;  as  he  subsequently  took  part 
in  the  first  iron-clad  attack  on  Fort  Sumter. 

Meantime,  however,  the  War  Department  gave 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR.  179 

no  sign,  and  the  oracles  of  the  Adjutant- General's 
office  were  dumb  as  the  statue  of  the  Sphynx. 
Reports  of  the  organization  of  the  First  South 
Carolina  infantry  were  duly  forwarded  to  army 
headquarters  ;  but  evoked  no  comment,  either  of 
approval  or  rebuke.  Letters  detailing  what  had 
been  done,  and  the  reason  for  doing  it;  asking 
instructions,  and  to  have  commissions  duly  issued 
to  the  officers  selected ;  appeals  that  the  depart 
ment  paymasters  should  be  instructed  to  pay  these 
negro  troops  like  other  soldiers  ;  demands  that  the 
government  should  either  shoulder  the  responsi 
bility  of  sustaining  the  organization,  or  give  such 
orders  as  would  absolve  Gen.  Hunter  from  the 
responsibility  of  backing  out  from  an  experiment 
which  he  believed  to  be  essential  to  the  salvation 
of  the  country — all  these  appeals  to  Washington 
proved  in  vain  ;  for  the  oracles  still  remained  pro 
foundly  silent,  probably  waiting  to  see  how  public 
opinion  and  the  politicians  would  receive  this  dar 
ing  innovation. 

At  length  one  evening  a  special  dispatch- 
steamer  ploughed  her  way  over  the  bar,  and  a 
perspiring  messenger  delivered  into  General 
Hunter's  hands  a  special  despatch  from  the  War 
Department,  "  requiring  immediate  answer."  The 
General  was  just  about  mounting  his  horse  for 
his  usual  evening  ride  along  the  picket-line,  when 
this  portentous  missive  was  brought  under  his 


180  RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR. 

notice.  Hastily  opening  it,  he  first  looked  grave, 
then  began  to  smile,  and  finally  burst  into  peals 
of  irrepressible  laughter — such  as  were  rarely 
heard  from  "Black  David,"  his  old  army-name. 
Never  was  the  General  seen,  before  or  since,  in 
such  good  spirits  ;  he  literally  was  unable  to  speak 
from  constant  interruptions  of  laughter ;  and  all 
his  Adjutant-General  could  gather  from  him  was : 
"  That  he  would  not  part  with  the  document  in  his 
hand  for  fifty  thousand  dollars." 

At  length  he  passed  over  the  dispatch  to  his 
Chief  of  Staff,  who,  on  reading  it,  and  re-read 
ing  it,  could  find  in  its  text  but  little  apparent 
cause  for  merriment.  It  was  a  grave  demand 
from  the  War  Department  for  information  in 
regard  to  our  negro  regiment—the  demand  being 
based  on  certain  resolutions  introduced  by  the 
Hon.  Mr.  Wickliffe,  of  Kentucky,  asking  for 
specific  information  on  the  point  in  a  tone  clearly 
not  friendly.  These  resolutions  had  been  adopted 
by  Congress  ;  and  as  Hunter  was  without  author 
ity  for  any  of  his  actions  in  the  case,  it  seemed 
to  his  then  not  cheerful  Adjutant-General  that  the 
documents  in  his  hands  were  the  reverse  of  hilari 
ous. 

Still  Hunter  was  in  extravagant  spirits  as  he 
rode  along,  his  laughter  startling  the  squirrels  in 
the  dense  pine-woods,  and  every  attempt  that  he 
made  to  explain  himself  being  again  and  again 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE   WAR.  381 

interrupted  by  renewed  peals  of  inextinguishable 
mirth.  "  The  fool,"  he  at  length  managed  to  say ; 
"that  old  fool  has  just  given  me  the  very  chance 
I  was  growing  sick  for !  The  War  Department 
has  refused  to  notice  my  black  regiment ;  but  now, 
in  reply  to  this  resolution,  I  can  lay  the  matter 
before  the  country,  and  force  the  authorities  either 
to  adopt  my  negroes  or  to  disband  them." 

He  then  rapidly  sketched  out  the  kind  of  reply 
he  wished  to  have  prepared ;  and,  with  the  first 
ten  words  of  his  explanation,  the  full  force  of  the 
cause  he  had  for  laughter  became  apparent.  Never 
did  General  and  his  Chief-of-staff,  in  a  more  un 
seemly  state  of  cachin nation,  ride  along  a  picket- 
line.  At  every  new  phase  of  the  subject  it  pre 
sented  new  features  of  the  ludicrous  ;  and  though 
the  reply,  at  this  late  date,  may  have  lost  much 
of  the  drollery  which  then  it  wore,  it  is  a  serio 
comic  document  of  as  much  vital  importance  in 
the  moral  history  of  our  late  contest  as  any  that 
can  be  found  in  the  archives  under  the  care  of 
General  E.  D.  Townsend.  It  was  received  late 
Sunday  evening,  and  was  answered  very  late  that 
night,  in  order  to  be  in  time  for  the  steamer  Arago, 
which  sailed  at  daylight  next  morning — the 
dispatch-steamer  which  brought  the  request  for 
"  immediate  information"  having  sustained  some 
injuries  which  prevented  an  immediate  return.  It 
was  written  after  midnight,  we  may  add,  in  a  tor- 


182  RECOLLECTIONS   OF  THE  WAR. 

nado  of  thunder  and  tempest  such  as  has  rarely 
been  known  even  on  that  tornado-stricken  coast ; 
but  loud  as  were  the  peals  and  vivid  the  flashes 
of  heaven's  artillery,  there  were  at  least  two  per 
sons  within  the  lines  on  Hilton  Head  who  were 
laughing  far  too  noisily  themselves  to  pay  any 
heed  to  external  clamors.  The  reply  thus  con 
cocted  and  sent,  from  an  uncorrected  manuscript 
copy  now  in  our  possession,  ran  as  follows : 

"  HEADQUARTERS,  DEPARTMENT  OF  THE  SOUTH,  ) 
HILTON  HEAD,  S.  C.,  June,  1862.         ) 

"  To  the  HON.  E.  M.  STANTON,  Secretary  of  War, 
Washington,  D.  C. 

11  SIR  : — I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the 
receipt  of  a  communication  from  the  Adjutant- 
General  of  the  Army,  dated  June  13,  1862,  re 
questing  me  to  furnish  you  with  the  information 
necessary  to  answer  certain  Kesolutions  introduced 
in  the  House  of  Eepresentatives,  June  9,  1862,  on 
motion  of  the  Hon.  Mr.  Wickliffe  of  Kentucky — 
their  substance  being  to  inquire  : 

"  1st.  Whether  I  had  organized,  or  was  organiz 
ing,  a  regiment  of  '  fugitive  slaves'  in  this  Depart 
ment. 

"2d.  "Whether  any  authority  had  been  given 
to  me  from  the  War  Department  for  such  organi 
zation;  and 


RECOLLECTIONS   OF   THE   WAR.  183 

"  3d.  Whether  I  had  been  furnished,  by  order 
of  the  War  Department,  with  clothing,  uniforms, 
arms,  equipments,  and  so  forth,  for  such  a  force  ? 

"  Only  having  received  the  letter  at  a  late  hour 
this  evening,  I  urge  forward  my  answer  in  time 
for  the  steamer  sailing  to-morrow  morning — this 
haste  preventing  me  from  entering,  as  minutely  as 
I  could  wish,  upon  many  points  of  detail,  such  as 
the  paramount  importance  of  the  subject  would 
seem  to  call  for.  But,  in  view  of  the  near  termi 
nation  of  the  present  session  of  Congress,  and  the 
wide-spread  interest  which  must  have  been  awak 
ened  by  Mr.  WicklifFe's  resolutions,  I  prefer  send 
ing  even  this  imperfect  answer,  to  waiting  the 
period  necessary  for  the  collection  of  fuller  and 
more  comprehensive  data. 

"  To  the  first  question.,  therefore,  I  reply:  that 
no  regiment  of  '  fugitive  slaves'  has  been,  or  is 
being,  organized  in  this  department.  There  is, 
however,  a  fine  regiment  of  loyal  persons  whose 
late  masters  are  '  fugitive  rebels' — men  who  every 
where  fly  before  the  appearance  of  the  National 
Flag,  leaving  their  loyal  and  unhappy  servants 
behind  them,  to  shift,  as  best  they  can,  for  them 
selves.  So  far,  indeed,  are  the  loyal  persons  com 
posing  this  regiment  from  seeking  to  evade  the 
presence  of  their  late  owners,  that  they  are  now, 
one  and  all,  endeavoring  with  commendable  zeal 
to  acquire  the  drill  and  discipline  requisite  to 


184  RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAK. 

place  them  in  a  position  to  go  in  full  and  effective 
pursuit  of  their  fugacious  and  traitorous  proprie 
tors. 

"  To  the  second  question,  I  have  the  honor  to 
answer  that  the  instructions  given  to  Brig.-Gen. 
T.  W.  Sherman  by  the  Hon.  Simon  Cameron,  late 
Secretary  of  War,  and  turned  over  to  me,  by  suc 
cession,  for  my  guidance,  do  distinctly  authorize 
me  to  employ  *  all  loyal  persons  offering  their  ser 
vices  in  defence  of  the  Union,  and  for  the  suppres 
sion  of  this  rebellion,'  in  any  manner  I  may  see 
fit,  or  that  circumstances  may  call  for.  There  is 
no  restriction  as  to  the  character  or  color  of  the 
persons  to  be  employed,  or  the  nature  of  the  em 
ployments — whether  civil  or  military — in  which 
their  services  may  be  used.  I  conclude,  therefore, 
that  I  have  been  authorized  to  enlist  'fugitive 
slaves'  as  soldiers,  could  any  such  '  fugitives'  be 
found  in  this  department. 

"  No  such  characters,  however,  have  yet  appear 
ed  within  view  of  our  most  advanced  pickets — the 
loyal  negroes  everywhere  remaining  on  their 
plantations  to  welcome  us,  aid  us,  and  supply  us 
with  food,  labor,  and  information.  It  is  the  mas 
ters  who  have  in  every  instance  been  the  '  fugi 
tives,'  running  away  from  loyal  slaves  as  well  as 
loyal  soldiers ;  and  these,  as  yet,  we  have  only 
partially  been  able  to  see — chiefly  their  heads  over 
ramparts,  or  dodging  behind  trees,  rifle  in  hand, 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR.  185 

in  the  extreme  distance.  In  the  absence  of  any 
{ fugitive  master  law,'  the  deserted  slaves  would 
be  wholly  without  remedy,  had  not  the  crime  of 
treason  given  them 'the  right  to  pursue,  capture, 
and  bring  back  those  persons  of  whose  benignant 
protection  they  have  been  thus  suddenly  and 
cruelly  bereft. 

"  To  the  third  interrogatory,  it  is  my  painful 
duty  to  reply  that  I  never  have  received  any 
specific  authority  for  issues  of  clothing,  uniforms, 
arms,  equipments,  and  so  forth,  to  the  troops  in 
question — my  general  instructions  from  Mr. 
Cameron,  to  employ  them  in  any  manner  I  might 
find  necessary,  and  the  military  exigencies  of  the 
department  and  the  country,  being  my  only,  but, 
I  trust,  sufficient,  justification.  Neither  have  I 
had  any  specific  authority  for  supplying  these 
persons  with  shovels,  spades,  and  pickaxes,  when 
employing  them  as  laborers ;  nor  with  boats  and 
oars,  when  using  them  as  lighter-men ;  but  these 
are  not  points  included  in  Mr.  Wickliffe's  resolu 
tion.  To  me  it  seemed  that  liberty  to  employ 
men  in  any  particular  capacity  implied  and  carried 
with  it  liberty,  also,  to  supply  them  with  the 
necessary  tools;  and,  acting  upon  this  faith,  I 
have  clothed,  equipped,  and  armed  the  only  loyal 
regiment  yet  raised  in  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  or 
Florida. 

"  I  must  say,  in  vindication  of  my  own  conduct, 


186  RECOLLECTIONS   OF  THE  "WAR. 

that,  had  it  not  been  for  the  many  other  diversi 
fied  and  imperative  claims  on  my  time  and  atten 
tion,  a  much  more  satisfactory  result  might  have 
been  achieved ;  and  that,  in  place  of  only  one 
regiment,  as  at  present,  at  least  five  or  six  well- 
drilled,  brave,  and  thoroughly  acclimated  regi 
ments  should,  by  this  time,  have  been  added  to 
the  loyal  forces  of  the  Union. 

"  The  experiment  of  arming  the  blacks,  so  far 
as  I  have  made  it,  has  been  a  complete  and  even 
marvellous  success.  They  are  sober,  docile,  atten 
tive,  and  enthusiastic — displaying  great  natural 
capacities  in  acquiring  the  duties  of  the  soldier. 
They  are  now  eager  beyond  all  things  to  take  the 
field  and  be  led  into  action ;  and  it  is  the  unani 
mous  opinion  of  the  officers  who  have  had  charge 
of  them  that,  in  the  peculiarities  of  this  climate  and 
country,  they  will  prove  invaluable  auxiliaries — 
fully  equal  to  the  similar  regiments  so  long  and 
successfully  used  by  the  British  authorities  in  the 
West  India  Islands. 

u  In  conclusion,  I  would  say,  it  is  my  hope — 
there  appearing  no  possibility  of  other  reinforce 
ments,  owing  to  the  exigencies  of  the  campaign  in 
the  Peninsula — to  have  organized  by  the  end  of 
next  fall,  and  be  able  to  present  to  the  govern 
ment,  from  forty-eight  to  fifty  thousand  of  these 
hardy  and  devoted  soldiers. 

"  Trusting  that  this  letter  may  be  made  part  of 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR.  187 

your  answer  to  Mr.  Wickliffe's  resolutions,  I  have 
the  honor  to  be,  very  respectfully,  your  most 
obedient  servant, 

"DAVID  HUNTER, 
"  Major-General  Commanding." 

This  missive  was  duly  sent,  with  many  misgiv 
ings  that  it  would  not  get  through  the  routine  of 
the  War  Department  in  time  to  be  laid  before 
Congress  previous  to  the  adjournment  of  that 
honorable  body,  which  was  then  imminent.  There 
were  fears,  too,  that  the  Secretary  of  War  might 
think  it  not  sufficiently  respectful,  or  serious  in 
its  tone ;  but  such  apprehensions  proved  unfound 
ed.  The  moment  it  was  received  and  read  in  the 
War  Department,  it  was  hurried  down  to  the 
House,  and  delivered,  ore  rotundo,  from  the  Clerk's 
desk. 

Here  its  effect  was  magical.  The  Clerk  could 
scarcely  read  it  with  decorum ;  nor  could  half  his 
words  be  heard  amidst  the  universal  peals  of 
laughter  in  which  both  Democrats  and  Republi 
cans  appeared  to  vie  as  to  which  should  be  the  more 
noisy.  Mr.  Wickliffe,  who  only  entered  during 
the  reading  of  the  latter  half  of  the  document, 
rose  to  his  feet  in  a  frenzy  of  indignation,  com 
plaining  that  the  reply,  of  which  he  had  only 
heard  some  portion,  was  an  insult  to  the  dignity 
of  the  House,  and  should  be  severely  noticed. 


188  RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR. 

The  more  lie  raved  and  gesticulated,  tlie  more 
irrepressibly  did  his  colleagues,  on  both  sides  of 
the  slavery  question,  scream  and  laugh ;  until, 
finally,  the  merriment  reached  its  climax  on  a 
motion  made  by  some  member — Schuyler  Colfax, 
if  we  remember  rightly — that  "  as  the  document 
appeared  to  please  the  honorable  gentleman  from 
Kentucky  so  much,  and  as  he  had  not  heard  the 
whole  of  it,  the  Clerk  be  now  requested  to  read 
the  whole  again" — a  motion  which  was  instan 
taneously  carried  amid  such  an  uproar  of  univer 
sal  merriment  and  applause  as  the  frescoed  walls 
of  the  chamber  have  seldom  heard,  either  before 
or  since.  It  was  the  great  joke  of  the  day,  and 
coming  at  a  moment  of  universal  gloom  in  the 
public  mind,  was  seized  upon  by  the  whole  loyal 
press  of  the  country  as  a  kind  of  politico-military 
champagne-cocktail. 

This  set  that  question  at  rest  for  ever ;  and  not 
long  after,  the  proper  authorities  saw  fit  to  author 
ize  the  employment  of  "fifty  thousand  able- 
bodied  blacks  for  labor  in  the  Quartermaster's 
Department,"  and  the  arming  and  drilling  as  sol 
diers  of  five  thousand  of  these — but  for  the  sole 
purpose  of  "  protecting  the  women  and  children 
of  their  fellow-laborers  who  might  be  absent  from 
home  in  the  public  service." 

Here  we  have  another  instance  of  the  reluctance 
with  which  the  National  Government  took  up  this 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR.  189 

idea  of  employing  negroes  as  soldiers — a  resolu 
tion,  we  may  add,  to  which  they  were  on]y  finally 
compelled  by  General  Hunter's  disbandmeat  of 
his  original  regiment,  and  the  storm  of  public 
indignation  which  followed  that  act. 

OUTLAWRY  OF  HUNTER  AND  HIS  OFFICERS  BY 
THE  REBEL  GOVERNMENT — HUNTER'S  SUP 
PRESSED  LETTER  TO  JEFFERSON  DAVIS. 

CHAPTER  H. 

Nothing  could  have  been  happier  in  its  effect 
upon  the  public  mind  than  General  Hunter's  reply 
to  Mr.  Wickliffe  of  Kentucky,  given  in  our  last. 
It  produced  a  general  broad  grin  throughout  the 
country,  and  the  advocate  who  can  set  his  jury 
laughing  rarely  loses  his  cause.  It  also  strength 
ened  the  spinal  column  of  the  Government  in  a 
very  marked  degree  ;  although  not  yet  up  to  the 
point  of  fully  endorsing  and  accepting  this  dar 
ing  experiment. 

Meantime  the  civil  authorities  of  course  got 
wind  of  what  was  going  on — Mr.  Henry  J.  "Wind 
sor,  special  correspondent  of  the  New  York  Times 
in  the  Department  of  the  South,  having  devoted 
several  very  graphic  and  widely -copied  letters  to 
a  picture  of  that  new  thing  under  the  sun — 
"  Hunter's  negro  regiment." 

Of  course  the  chivalry  of  the  rebellion  were 


190  RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR. 

incensed  beyond  measure  at  this  last  Yankee  out 
rage  upon  Southern  rights.  Their  papers  teemed 
with  vindictive  articles  against  the  commanding 
general  who  had  dared  to  initiate  such  a  novelty 
— the  Savannah  Republican,  in  particular,  de 
nouncing  Hunter  as  "  The  cold-blooded  abolition 
miscreant  who,  from  his  headquarters  at  Hilton 
Head,  is  engaged  in  executing  the  bloody  and 
savage  behests  of  the  imperial  gorilla  who,  from 
his  throne  of  human  bones  at  Washington,  rules, 
reigns,  and  riots  over  the  destinies  of  the  brutish 
and  degraded  North." 

Mere  newspaper  abuse,  however,  by  no  means 
gave  content  to  the  outraged  feelings  of  the  chi 
valry.  They  therefore  sent  a  formal  demand  to 
our  Government  for  information  as  to  whether 
General  Hunter,  in  organizing  his  regiment  of 
emancipated  slaves,  had  acted  under  the  authority 
of  our  War  Department ;  or  whether  the  villany 
was  of  his  own  conception  ?  If  he  had  acted 
under  orders,  why  then  terrible  measures  of  fierce 
retaliation  against  the  whole  Yankee  nation  were 
to  be  adopted;  but  if,  per  contra^  the  iniquity 
were  of  his  own  motion  and  without  the  sanction 
of  our  Government,  then  the  foreshadowed  retri 
bution  should  be  made  to  fall  only  on  Hunter  and 
his  officers. 

To  this  demand,  with  its  alternative  of  threats, 
President  Lincoln  was  in  no  mood  to  make  any 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR  191 

definitive  reply.  In  fact  no  reply  at  all  was  sent 
— for,  as  yet,  the  most  far-seeing  political  augurs 
could  not  determine  whether  the  bird  seen  in  the 
sky  of  the  Southern  Department  would  prove  an 
eagle  or  a  buzzard.  Public  opinion  was  not 
formed  upon  the  subject,  though  rapidly  forming. 
There  were  millions  who  agreed  with  Hunter  in 
believing  that  "the  black  man  should  be  made 
fight  for  the  freedom  which  could  not  but  be  the 
issue  of  our  war;"  and  then  there  were  other  mil 
lions  whose  conservative  notions  were  outraged  at 
the  prospect  of  allowing  black  men  to  be  killed 
or  maimed  in  company  with  our  nobler 
whites. 

Failing  to  obtain  any  reply,  therefore,  from  the 
authorities  of  Washington,  the  Kichmond  people 
determined  to  pour  out  all  their  vengeance  on  the 
immediate  perpetrators  of  this  last  Yankee  atro 
city  ;  and  forthwith  there  was  issued  from  the 
rebel  War  Department  a  General  Order — number 
60,  we  believe,  of  the  Series  of  1862 — reciting 
that  "  as  the  government  of  the  United  States  had 
refused  to  answer  whether  it  authorized  the  rais 
ing  of  a  black  regiment  by  General  Hunter  or 
not,"  said  General,  his  staff,  and  all  officers  under 
his  command  who  had  directly  or  indirectly  par 
ticipated  in  the  unclean  thing,  should  hereafter  be 
maranatha — outlaws  not  covered  by  the  laws 
of  war;  but  to  be  executed  as  felons  for  the 


192  RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR. 

crime  of  "  inciting  negro  insurrections  wherever 
caught." 

This  order  reached  the  ears  of  the  parties 
mainly  interested  just  as  General  Hunter  was 
called  to  Washington — ostensibly  for  consultation 
on  public  business ;  but  really  on  the  motion  of 
certain  prominent  speculators  in  marine  transpor 
tation,  with  whose  "  big  things"  in  Port  Eoyal 
harbor — and  they  were  enormous — the  General 
had  seen  fit  to  interfere.  These  frauds,  however, 
will  form  a  very  fruitful  and  pregnant  theme  for 
some  future  chapters.  At  present  our  business  is 
with  the  slow  but  certain  growth  in  the  public 
mind  of  this  idea  of  allowing  some  black  men  to 
be  killed  in  the  late  war,  and  not  continuing  to 
arrogate  death  and  mutilation  by  projectiles  and 
bayonets  as  an  exclusive  privilege  for  our  own 
beloved  white  race. 

No  sooner  had  Hunter  been  relieved  from  this 
special  duty  at  "Washington,  than  he  was  ordered 
back  to  the  South — our  Government  still  taking 
no  notice  of  the  order  of  outlawry  against  him 
issued  by  the  rebel  Secretary  of  War.  He  and 
his  officers  were  thus  sent  back  to  engage,  with 
extremely  insufficient  forces,  in  an  enterprise  of 
no  common  difficulty,  and  with  an  agreeable  sen 
tence  of  siis.  per  col,  if  captured,  hanging  over 
their  devoted  heads  ! 

"  Why  not  suggest  to  Mr.  Stanton,  General,  that 


RECOLLECTIONS   OF   THE   WAR.  193 

he  should  either  demand  the  special  revocation 
of  that  order,  or  announce  to  the  rebel  War  De 
partment  that  our  Government  has  adopted  your 
negro-regiment  policy  as  its  own — which  would 
be  the  same  thing?" 

It  was  partly  on  this  hint  that  Hunter  wrote 
the  following  letter  to  Jefferson  Davis — a  letter 
subsequently  suppressed  and  never  sent,  owing  to 
influences  which  the  writer  of  this  article  does  not 
feel  himself  as  yet  at  liberty  to  reveal — further 
than  to  say  that  Mr.  Stanton  knew  nothing  of  the 
matter.  Davis  and  Hunter,  we  may  add,  had 
been  very  old  and  intimate  friends,  until  divided, 
some  years  previous  to  our  late  war,  by  differences 
on  the  slavery  question.  Davis  had  for  many 
years  been  adjutant  of  the  1st  U.  S.  Dragoons,  of 
which  Hunter  had  been  Captain  Commanding; 
and  a  relationship  of  very  close  friendship  had 
existed  between  their  respective  families.  It  was 
this  thorough  knowledge  of  his  man,  perhaps, 
which  gave  peculiar  bitterness  to  Hunter's  pen ; 
and  the  letter  is  otherwise  remarkable  as  a  pro 
phecy,  or  preordainment  of  that  precise  policy 
which  President  Johnson  has  so  frequently  an 
nounced  and  reiterated  since  Mr.  Lincoln's  death. 
It  ran — with  some  few  omissions,  no  longer  perti 
nent  or  of  public  interest — as  follows : 
9 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE   WAR. 


"  To  JEFFERSON  DAVIS,  Titular  President  of  the 
so-calkd  Confederate  States. 

"  WASmNGTON,  20th  Sept.,  1862. 

"  SIR  :  —  While  recently  in  command  of  the 
Department  of  the  South,  in  accordance  with 
the  laws  of  war  and  the  dictates  of  common  sense, 
I  organized  and  caused  to  be  drilled,  armed,  and 
equipped  a  regiment  of  enfranchised  bondmen, 
known  as  the  1st  South  Carolina  Volunteers. 

"  For  this  action,  as  I  have  ascertained,  the  pre 
tended  government  of  which  you  are  the  chief 
officer,  has  issued  against  me  and  all  of  my  officers 
who  were  engaged  in  organizing  the  regiment  in 
question,  a  General  Order  of  Outlawry,  which 
announces  that,  if  captured,  we  shall  not  even  be 
allowed  the  usual  miserable  treatment  extended 
to  such  captives  as  fall  into  your  hands  ;  but  that 
we  are  to  be  regarded  as  felons,  and  to  receive  the 
death  by  hanging  due  to  such,  irrespective  of  the 
laws  of  war. 

"  Mr.  Davis,  we  have  been  acquainted  intimately 
in  the  past.  We  have  campaigned  together,  and 
our  social  relations  have  been  such  as  to  make 
each  understand  the  other  thoroughly.  That  you 
mean,  if  it  be  ever  in  your  power,  to  execute  tho 
full  rigor  of  your  threat,  I  am  well  assured  ;  and 
you  will  believe  my  assertion,  that  I  thank  yon 
for  having  raised  in  connection  with  me  and  my 
acts,  this  sharp  and  decisive  issue.  I  shall  proudly 


RECOLLECTIONS   OF  THE   WAR.  195 

accept,  if  such  be  the  chance  of  war,  the  martyr 
dom  you  menace ;  and  hereby  give  you  notice 
that  unless  your  General  Order  against  me  and  my 
officers  be  formally  revoked  within  thirty  days 
from  the  date  of  the  transmission  of  this  letter, 
sent  under  a  flag  of  truce,  I  shall  take  your  action 
in  the  matter  as  final ;  and  will  reciprocate  it  by 
hanging  every  rebel  officer  who  now  is,  or  may 
hereafter  be  taken,  prisoner  by  the  troops  of  the 
command  to  which  I  am  about  returning. 

"  Believe  me  that  I  rejoice  at  the  aspect  now 
being  given  to  the  war  by  the  course  you  have 
adopted.  In  my  judgment,  if  the  undoubted 
felony  of  treason  had  been  treated  from  the  out 
set  as  it  deserves  to  be — as  the  sum  of  all  felonies 
and  crimes — this  rebellion  would  never  have 
attained  its  present  menacing  proportions.  The 
war  you  and  your  fellow-conspirators  have  been 
waging  against  the  United  States  must  be  regarded 
either  as  a  war  of  justifiable  defence,  carried  on 
for  the  integrity  of  the  boundaries  of  a  sovereign 
Confederation  of  States  against  foreign  aggression, 
or  as  the  most  wicked,  enormous,  and  deliberately- 
planned  conspiracy  against  human  liberty  and 
for  the  triumph  of  treason  and  slavery,  of  which 
the  records  of  the  world's  history  contain  any 
note. 

"  If  our  Government  should  adopt  the  first  view 
of  the  case,  you  and  your  fellow-rebels  may  justly 


196  RECOLLECTIONS   OF   THE   WAR. 

claim  to  be  considered  a  most  unjustly- treated 
body  of  disinterested  patriots — although,  perhaps, 
a  little  mistaken  in  your  connivance  with  the 
thefts  by  which  your  agent,  John  B.  Floyd,  suc 
ceeded  in  arming  the  South  and  partially  dis 
arming  the  North,  as  a  preparative  to  the  com 
mencement  of  the  struggle. 

"  But  if  on  the  other  hand — as  is  the  theory  of 
our  Government — the  war  you  have  levied  against 
the  United  States  be  a  rebellion  the  most  cause 
less,  crafty,  cruel,  and  bloody  ever  known — a 
conspiracy  having  the  rule-or-ruin  policy  for  its 
basis,  the  plunder  of  the  black  race  and  the  re 
opening  of  the  African  slave-trade  for  its  object, 
the  continued  and  further  degradation  of  ninety 
per  cent,  of  the  white  population  of  the  South  in 
favor  of  a  slave-driving  ten  per  cent,  .aristocracy, 
and  the  exclusion  of  all  foreign-born  immigrants 
from  participation  in  the  generous  and  equal  hos 
pitality  foreshadowed  to  them  in  the  Declaration 
of  Independence, — if  this,  as  I  believe,  be  a  fair 
statement  of  the  origin  and  motives  of  the  rebel 
lion  of  which  you  are  the  titular  head,  then  it 
would  have  been  better  had  our  Government 
adhered  to  the  constitutional  view  of  treason  from 
the  start,  and  hung  every  man  taken  in  arms 
against  the  United  States,  from  the  first  butchery 
in  the  streets  of  Baltimore,  down  to  the  last  result- 
less  battle  fought  in  the  vicinity  of  Sharpsburg. 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR.  197 

"If  treason,  in  other  words,  be  any  crime,  it  is 
the  essence  of  all  crimes ;  a  vast  machinery  of 
guilt,  multiplying  assassinations  into  wholesale 
slaughters,  and  organizing  plunder  as  the  basis 
for  supporting  a  system  of  National  Brigandage. 
Your  action,  and  that  of  those  with  whom  you 
are  in  league,  has  its  best  comment  in  the  sympa 
thy  extended  to  your  cause  by  the  despots  and 
aristocracies  of  Europe.  You  have  succeeded 
in  throwing  back  civilization  for  many  years ; 
and  have  made  of  the  country  that  was  the  freest, 
happiest,  proudest,  richest,  and  most  progressive 
but  two  short  years  ago,  a  vast  temple  of  mourn 
ing,  doubt,  anxiety,  and  privation — our  manufac 
tures  of  all  but  war-material  nearly  paralysed, 
the  inventive  spirit  which  was  for  ever  developing 
new  resources  destroyed,  and  our  flag,  that  car 
ried  respect  everywhere,  now  mocked  by  ene 
mies  who  think  its  glory  tarnished,  and  that  its 
power  is  soon  to  become  a  mere  tradition  of  the 
past. 

"  For  all  these  results,  Mr.  Davis,  and  for  the 
three  hundred  thousand  lives  already  sacrificed 
on  both  sides  in  the  war — some  pouring  out  their 
blood  on  the  battle-field,  and  others,  fever- 
stricken,  wasting  away  to  death  in  over-crowded 
hospitals — you  and  the  fellow-miscreants  who 
have  been  your  associates  in  this  conspiracy  are 
responsible.  Of  you  and  them  it  may  with  truth 


198  RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR. 

be  said,  that  if  all  the  innocent  blood  which  you 
have  spilled  could  be  collected  in  one  pool,  the 
whole  government  of  your  Confederacy  might 
swim  in  it. 

"  I  am  aware  that  this  is  not  the  language  in 
which  the  prevailing  etiquette  of  our  army  is  in 
the  habit  of  considering  your  conspiracy.  It  has 
come  to  pass — through  what  instrumentalities 
you  are  best  able  to  decide — that  the  greatest  and 
worst  crime  ever  attempted  against  the  human 
family,  has  been  treated  in  certain  quarters  as 
though  it  were  a  mere  error  of  judgment  on  the 
part  of  some  gifted  friends ;  a  thing  to  be  regret 
ted,  of  course,  as  causing  more  or  less  disturbance 
to  the  relations  of  amity  and  esteem  heretofore 
existing  between  those  charged  with  the  repres 
sion  of  such  eccentricities  and  the  eccentric  actors : 
in  fact,  as  a  slight  political  miscalculation  or  pec 
cadillo,  rather  than  as  an  outrage  involving  the 
desolation  of  a  continent,  and  demanding  the 
promptest  and  severest  retribution  within  the 
power  of  human  law. 

"  For  myself,  I  have  never  been  able  to  take 
this  view  of  the  matter.  During  a  lifetime  of 
active  service,  I  have  seen  the  seeds  of  this  con 
spiracy  planted  in  the  rank  soil  of  slavery/ and 
the  Upas-growth  watered  by  just  such  tricklings 
of  a  courtesy  alike  false  to  justice,  expediency, 
and  our  eternal  future.  Had  we  at  an  earlier  day 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR.  199 

/ 

commenced  to  call  things  by  their  right  names, 
and  to  look  at  the  hideous  features  of  slavery 
with  our  ordinary  common  eyesight  and  common 
sense,  instead  of  through  the  rose-colored  glasses 
of  supposed  political  expediency,  there  would  be 
three  hundred  thousand  more  men  alive  to-day  on 
American  soil ;  and  our  country  would  never  for 
a  moment  have  forfeited  her  proud  position  as  the 
highest  exemplar  of  the  blessings — moral,  intel 
lectual,  and  material — to  be  derived  from  a  free 
form  of  government. 

"  Whether  your  intention  of  hanging  me  and 
those  of  my  staff  and  other  officers  who  were 
engaged  in  organizing  the  1st  South  Carolina  Vol 
unteers,  in  case  we  are  taken  prisoners  in  battle, 
will  be  likely  to  benefit  your  cause  or  not,  is  a 
matter  mainly  for  your  own  consideration.  For 
us,  our  profession  makes  the  sacrifice  of  life  a 
contingency  ever  present  and  always  to  be  accept 
ed  ;  and  although  such  a  form  of  death  as  your 
order  proposes,  is  not  that  to  the  contemplation 
of  which  soldiers  have  trained  themselves — I  feel 
well  assured,  both  for  myself  and  those  included 
in  my  sentence,  that  we  could  die  in  no  manner 
more  damaging  to  your  abominable  rebellion 
and  the  abominable  institution  which  is  its 
origin. 

"  The  South  has  already  tried  one  hanging 
experiment,  but  not  with  a  success — one  would 


200  RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR. 

think — to  encourage  its  repetition.  John  Brown, 
who  was  well  known  to  me  in  Kansas,  and  who 
will  be  known  in  appreciative  history  through 
centuries  which  will  only  recall  your  name  to  load 
it  with  curses — once  entered  Virginia  with  seven 
teen  men  and  an  idea.  The  terror  caused  by  the 
presence  of  his  idea,  and  the  dauntless  courage 
which  prompted  the  assertion  of  his  faith  against 
all  odds,  I  need  not  now  recall.  The  history  is 
too  familiar  and  too  painful.  '  Old  Ossawatomie' 
was  caught  and  hung;  his  seventeen  men  were 
killed,  captured,  or  dispersed,  and  several  of  them 
shared  his  fate.  Portions  of  his  skin  were  tanned, 
I  am  told,  and  circulated  as  relics  dear  to  the  bar 
barity  of  the  slaveholding  heart.  But  more  than 
a  million  of  armed  white  men,  Mr.  Davis,  are  to 
day  marching  South,  in  practical  acknowledgment 
that  they  regard  the  hanging  of  three  years  ago 
as  the  murder  of  a  martyr ;  and  as  they  march  to 
a  battle  which  has  the  emancipation  of  all  slaves 
as  one  of  its  most  glorious  results,  his  name  is  on 
their  lips;  to  the  music  of  his  memory  their 
marching  feet  keep  time ;  and  as  they  sling  knap 
sacks,  each  one  becomes  aware  that  he  is  an  armed 
apostle  of  the  faith  preached  by  him 

'  Who  has  gone  to  be  a  soldier 
In  the  army  of  the  Lord !' 

"  I  am  content,  if  such  be  the  will  of  Provi- 


RECOLLECTIONS   OF  THE   WAR.  201 

dence,  to  ascend  the  scaffold  made  sacred  by  the 
blood  of  this  martyr  ;  and  I  rejoice  at  every  pros 
pect  of  making  our  struggle  more  earnest  and 
inexorable  on  both  sides ;  for  the  sharper  the 
conflict  the  sooner  ended — the  more  vigorous  and 
remorseless  the  strife,  the  less  blood  must  be  shed 
in  it  eventually. 

"  In  conclusion,  let  me  assure  you,  that  I  rejoice 
with  my  whole  heart  that  your  order  in  my  case, 
and  that  of  my  officers,  if  unrevoked,  will  untie 
our  hands  for  the  future ;  and  that  we  shall  be 
able  to  treat  rebellion  as  it  deserves,  and  give  to 
the  felony  of  treason  a  felon's  death. 
"  Very  obediently  yours, 

"  DAVID  HUNTER,  Maj.-Gen." 

Not  long  after  General  Hunter's  return  to  the 
Department  of  the  South,  the  first  step  towards 
organizing  and  recognising  negro  troops  was 
taken  by  our  Government,  in  a  letter  of  instruc 
tions  directing  Brigadier-General  Eufus  Saxton, — 
then  Military  Governor  of  South  Carolina,  Georgia, 
and  Florida,  within  the  limits  of  General  Hunter's 
command — to  forthwith  raise  and  organize  fifty 
thousand  able-bodied  blacks,  for  service  as  labor 
ers  in  the  quartermaster's  department ;  of  whom 
five  thousand — only  five  thousand,  mark  you  !— 
might  be  armed  and  drilled  as  soldiers  for  the 
purpose  of  "  protecting  the  women  and  children 


202  RECOLLECTIONS  OF   THE   WAR. 

of  their  fellow-laborers  who  might  be  absent  from 
home  in  the  public  service." 

Here  was  authority  given  to  General  Saxton, 
over  Hunter's  head,  to  pursue  some  steps  farther 
the  experiment  which  Hunter — soon  followed  by 
General  Phelps,  also  included  in  the  rebel  order 
of  "outlawry" — had  been  the  first  to  initiate. 
The  rebel  order  still  remained  in  full  force,  and 
with  no  protest  against  it  on  the  part  of  our 
Government;  nor,  to  our  knowledge,  was  any 
demand  from  Washington  ever  made  for  its  revo 
cation  during  the  existence  of  the  Confederacy. 
If  Hunter,  therefore,  or  any  of  his  officers,  had 
been  captured  in  any  of  the  campaigns  of  the 
past  two  and  a  half  years,  they  had  the  pleasant 
knowledge  for  their  comfort  that  every  rebel 
officer  into  whose  hands  they  might  fall,  was 
strictly  enjoined  to — not  "  shoot  them  on  the 
spot,"  as  was  the  order  of  General  Dix — but  to 
hang  them  on  the  first  tree,  and  hang  them 
quickly. 

"With  the  subsequent  history  of  our  black 
troops  the  public  is  already  familiar.  General 
Lorenzo  Thomas,  titular  Adjutant-General  of  our 
army,  not  being  regarded  as  a  very  efficient 
officer  for  that  place,  was  permanently  detailed 
on  various  services — now  exchanging  prisoners, 
now  discussing  points  of  military  law,  now  orga 
nizing  black  brigades  down  the  Mississippi  and 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE   WAR.  203 

elsewhere.  In  fact,  the  main  object  seemed  to  be 
to  keep  this  General  Thomas — who  must  not  be 
confounded  with  General  George  H.  Thomas,  one 
of  the  true  heroes  of  our  army — away  from  the 
Adjutant-General's  office  at  Washington,  in  order 
that  Brigadier  General  E.  D.  Townsend — only  a 
Colonel  until  quite  recently — might  perform  all 
the  laborious  and  crushing  duties  of  Adjutant- 
General  of  our  army,  while  only  signing  himself 
and  ranking  as  First  Assistant  Adjutant-General. 
If  there  be  an  officer  who  has  done  noble  service 
in  the  late  war  while  receiving  no  public  credit 
for  the  same — no  newspaper  puffs  nor  public 
ovations — that  man  is  Brigadier-General  E.  D, 
Townsend,  who  should  long  since  have  been  made 
a  major-general,  to  rank  from  the  first  day  of  the 
rebellion. 

And  now  let  us  only  add,  as  practical  proof 
that  the  rebels,  even  in  their  most  rabid  state, 
were  not  insensible  to  the  force  of  proper  "  rea 
sons  " — the  following  anecdote  : 

Some  officers  of  one  of  our  black  regiments — 
Colonel  Higginson's,  we  believe — indiscreetly  rode 
beyond  our  lines  around  St.  Augustine  in  pursuit 
of  game — but  whether  feathered  or  female  this 
deponent  sayeth  not.  Their  guide  proved  to  be 
a  spy,  who  had  given  notice  of  the  intended  expe 
dition  to  the  enemy ;  and  the  whole  party  were 
soon  surprised  and  captured.  The  next  we  heard 


204  RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE   WAR. 

of  them,  they  were  confined  in  the  condemned 
cells  of  one  of  the  Florida  State-prisons  and  were 
to  be  "  tried  " — i.e.  sentenced  and  executed — as 
"  having  been  engaged  in  inciting  negro  insur 
rections." 

We  had  then  some  wealthy  young  slavehold 
ers  belonging  to  the  first  families  of  South  Caro 
lina  in  the  custody  of  Lieutenant-Colonel  J.  F. 
Hall — now  Brigadier-General — of  this  city,  who 
was  our  Provost-Marshal ;  and  it  was  on  this  basis 
General  Hunter  resolved  to  operate.  "Eelease 
my  officers  of  black  troops  from  your  condemned 
cells  at  once,  and  notify  me  of  the  fact.  Until 
so  notified,  your  first  family  prisoners  in  my 
hands" — the  names  then  given — u  will  receive 
precisely  similar  treatment.  For  each  of  my  offi 
cers  hung,  I  will  hang  three  of  my  prisoners  who 
are  slaveholders."  This  dose  operated  with 
instantaneous  effect,  and  the  next  letter  received 
from  our  captured  officers  set  forth  that  they  were 
at  large  on  parole,  and  treated  as  well  as  they 
could  wish  to  be  in  that  miserable  country. 

"We  cannot  better  conclude  this  sketch,  perhaps, 
than  by  giving  the  brief  but  pregnant  verses  in 
which  our  ex-orderly,  Private  Miles  O'Keilly,  lato 
of  the  Old  Tenth  Army  Corps,  gave  his  opinion 
on  this  subject.  They  were  first  published  in 
connection  with  the  banquet  given  by  General 
T.  F.  Meagher  and  the  officers  of  the  Irish  Bri- 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE   WAR.  '205 

gade  to  the  returned  veterans  of  that  organization 
on  the  13th  of  January,  1864,  at  Irving  Hall. 
Of  this  song  it  may,  perhaps,  be  said,  in  verity 
and  without  vanity,  that — as  General  Hunter's 
letter  to  Mr.  Wickliffe  had  settled  the  negro-sol 
dier  controversy  in  its  official  and  Congressional 
form — so  did  the  publication  and  immediate  popu 
lar  adoption  of  these  verses  conclude  all  argument 
upon  this  matter  in  the  mind  of  the  general  pub 
lic.  Its  common  sense,  with  a  dash  of  drollery, 
at  once  won  over  the  Irish,  who  had  been  the 
bitterest  opponents  of  the  measure,  to  become  its 
friends ;  and  from  that  hour  to  this,  the  attacks 
upon  the  experiment  of  our  negro  soldiery  have 
been  so  few  and  far  between  that,  indeed,  they 
may  be  said  to  have  ceased  altogether.  It  ran  as 
follows,  and  appeared  in  the  Herald  the  morning 
after  the  banquet,  as  portion  of  the  report  of  the 
speeches  and  festivities : 

SAMBO'S  EIGHT  TO  BE  KILT. 

Am. — The  Low-Backed  Car. 

Some  say  it  is  a  burnin'  shame 

To  make  the  naygurs  fight, 
An'  that  the  thrade  o'  bein'  kilt 

Belongs  but  to  the  white  ; 
But  as  for  me,  upon  me  sowl, 

So  liberal  are  we  here, 


206  RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE   WAR. 

I'll  let  Sambo  be  murthered  in  place  o'  meself 
On  every  day  in  the  year. 

On  every  day  in  the  year,  boys, 

An'  every  hour  in  the  day, 
The  right  to  be  kilt  I'll  divide  wid  him, 
An'  divil  a  word  111  say. 

In  battle's  wild  commotion 
I  shouldn't  at  all  object, 
If  Sambo's  body  should  stop  a  ball 

That  was  comin:  for  me  direct  ; 
An'  the  prod  of  a  Southern  bagnet, 

So  liberal  are  we  here, 
I'll  resign,  and  let  Sambo  take  it 
On  every  day  in  the  year. 

On  every  day  in  the  year,  boys, 

An'  wid  none  o'  your  nasty  pride, 
All  my  right  in  a  Southern  bagnet-prod 
Wid  Sambo  I'll  divide. 

The  men  who  object  to  Sambo 

Should  take  his  place  an'  fight, 
An'  it's  betther  to  have  a  naygur's  hue 
Than  a  liver  that's  wake  an'  white  j 
Though  Sambo's  black  as  the  ace  o'  spades 

His  finger  a  thrigger  can  pull, 
An'  his  eye  runs  sthraight  on  the  barrel-sights 
From  undher  its  thatch  o'  wool. 
So  hear  me  all,  boys,  darlins ! 

Don't  think  I'm  tippin'  you  chaff, 
The  right  to  be  kilt  I'll  divide  wid  him, 

AN'  GIVE  HIM  THE  LARGEST  HALF  ! 

In  regard  to  Hunter's  reply  to  Mr.  Wickliffe, 
we  shall  only  add  this  anecdote,  told  us  one  day 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR.  207 

by  that  brilliant  gentleman  and  scholar,  the  Hon. 
San-Set  Cox  of  Ohio : 

"  I  tell  you,  that  letter  from  Hunter  spoiled  the 
prettiest  speech  I  had  ever  thought  of  making.  I 
had  been  delighted  with-  Wickliffe's  motion,  and 
thought  the  reply  to  it  would  furnish  us  first-rate 
Democratic  thunder  for  the  next  election.  I 
made  up  my  mind  to  sail  in  against  Hunter's 
answer — no  matter  what  it  was — the  moment  it 
came ;  and  to  be  even  more  humorously  success 
ful  in  its  delivery  and  reception  than  I  was  in  my 
speech  against  War- Horse  Grurley,  of  Ohio,  which 
you  have  just  been  complimenting.  Well,  you 
see,  man  proposes,  but  Providence  orders  other 
wise.  When  the  Clerk  announced  the  receipt  of 
the  answer,  and  that  he  was  about  to  read  it,  I 
caught  the  Speaker's  eye  and  was  booked  for  the 
first  speech  against  your  negro  experiment.  The 
first  sentence,  being  formal  and  official,  was  very 
well ;  but  at  the  second,  the  House  began  to  grin ; 
and  at  the  third,  not  a  man  on  the  floor — except 
Father  Wickliffe,  of  Kentucky,  perhaps — who 
was  not  convulsed  with  laughter.  Even  my  own 
risibles,  I  found  to  be  affected;  and  before  the 
document  was  concluded,  I  motioned  the  Speaker 
that  he  might  give  the  floor  to  whom  he  pleased, 
as  my  desire  to  distinguish  myself  in  that  parti 
cular  tilt  was  over." 


THE  FENIAN  BROTHERHOOD. 

WHAT  DOES    ENGLAND    MEAN  TO   DO  ABOUT    IT? 
[From  the  Herald,  May  5th,  1865.] 

THE  British  authorities  have  displayed  much 
anxiety  of  late  in  regard  to  the  doings,  aims,  and 
organization  of  the  Fenian  Brotherhood.  They 
asked  our  Secretary  of  State  for  "  explanations 
and  such  information  as  he  could  give  ;"  and  their 
demand  was  complied  with,  to  the  very  limited 
extent  of  our  Secretary's  sources  of  knowledge. 
From  our  more  ample  fountain  of  Fenian  informa 
tion,  however,  we  this  day  spread  before  Lord 
Palmerston,  and  the  rest  of  mankind,  all  such 
particulars  in  regard  to  the  Brotherhood  as  we 
deem  of  immediate  public  interest — only  suppress 
ing  names,  titles,  and  other  important  arcana  of 
the  Order  as  the  same  this  day  exist  in  Ireland 
and  Canada,  within  grasp  of  the  British  authori 
ties. 

In  return  for  these  very  full  particulars  given 
gratuitously  to  her  most  sacred  Majesty's  govern 
ment,  we  have  to  request  Lord  Palmerston  at  once 
to  lay  before  us,  through  some  one  or  other  of  his 
journalistic  organs  in  the  London  press,  precise 


THE   FENIAN  BROTHERHOOD.  209 

data  as  to  England's  present  policy  of  "  neutral 
ity  ;"  also  what  England  proposes  to  do  in  regard 
to  the  rebel  conspirators  and  conspiracies  in  the 
Canadas  ;  and  finally,  whether  it  is  the  immediate 
intention  of  her  most  sacred  Majesty's  advisers  to 
send  over  to  us,  without  fuss,  the  amount  of  our 
little  bill  for  the  damages  inflicted  on  our  shipping 
interests  by  the  Alabama,  Florida,  Georgia  and 
other  Anglo-rebel  privateers.  We  are  not  short 
of  money  just  now,  but  would  be  obliged  to  Lord 
Palmerston  for  a  settlement  in  gold  without  delay. 
He  knows  the  alternative  ;  and,  if  not,  our  Fenian 
developments  may  prove  to  him  instructive  read 
ing. 

TWO  ORGANIZATIONS  OF  THE  ORDER — ONE  AME 
RICAN,  ANOTHER  IN  IRELAND  AND  THE  CANA 
DAS. 

"Full  often  when  our  fathers  saw  the   Red  above  the 

Green, 
They  rose  in  rude  but  fierce  array,  with  sabre,  pike,  and 

skeen  ; 
And  over  many  a  conquered  town  and  many  a  field  of 

dead, 
They  proudly  set  the  Irish  Green  above  the  English 

Bed ! " 

Of  the  organization  called  the  "  Fenian  Brother 
hood,"  generally  recognised  as  mainly  Irish  in  its 
elements  and  aims,  much  has  been  heard,  and  but, 


210  THE  FENIAN  BROTHERHOOD. 

little  is  known  by  the  citizens  of  tins  country.  It 
is  by  many  thought  to  be  a  secret,  oath-bound  con 
spiracy,  created  for  revolutionary  purposes  in 
regard  to  Ireland  and  the  Canadas ;  and  neither 
loyal  to  the  government  of  the  United  States, 
under  which  it  has  been  allowed  to  grow  up,  nor 
unwilling  to  violate  the  laws  of  this  country,  if 
by  so  doing  its  darling  object — the  liberation  of 
Ireland  from  the  British  yoke — could  be  either 
accomplished  or  materially  furthered.  No  errors 
more  malignantly  false  than  are  contained  in  this 
view  of  the  Brotherhood,  could  well  be  imagined ; 
and  in  attempting  to  account  for  the  general 
acceptance  of  such  calumnies  in  the  minds  of  large 
classes  of  our  citizens,  we  are  irresistibly  forced 
to  the  conclusion  that  extraneous  and  well  organ 
ized  agencies,  of  British  origin,  have  been  at 
work  in  spreading  these  prej  udicial  and  unfounded 
aspersions.  The  Fenian  Brotherhood  is  loyal  to 
the  land  of  its  adoption  in  every  fibre  ;  and  none 
the  less  so  because  refusing  to  forget  the  land  to 
which  its  members  are  bound  by  ties  either  of 
blood  or  birth.  Is  the  British  government  so 
much  the  friend  of  the  United  States  that  to  hope 
for,  organize  for,  and  labor  for,  the  overthrow  of 
its  desolating  power  in  Ireland  must,  of  necessity, 
involve  disloyalty  to  the  Union?  Or  shall  an 
organization  which,  within  the  past  four  years, 
has  sent  over  twenty-eight  thousand  of  its  active 


THE   FENIAN  BROTHERHOOD.  211 

members  into  the  armies  of  the  Union,  be  con 
demned  as  unfaithful  to  the  American  cause,  for 
no  other  reason  than  that  it  hopes  yet  to  grapple 
with  the  tyrant  of  its  native  land,  and  to  place 
"  the  Irish  Green  above  the  English  Eed,"  while 
at  the  same  time  aiding  to  avenge  America's  quar 
rel  with  the  government  which  permitted  a  swarm 
of  pirates  to  be  sent  forth  from  its  harbors  to  prey 
upon  American  commerce  in  the  hoar  of  our 
sorest  need  ? 

The  time  has  been  in  which  to  hate  and  strike 
against  the  red  flag  of  England  was  no  crime  on 
this  side  of  the  Atlantic.  The  time  may  come 
again  ;  and — should  this  happen — the  Fenian 
Brotherhood,  we  prophesy,  will  be  found  a  ripe 
and  powerful  auxiliary  to  the  arms  of  the  Union. 

LOYALTY  OF  THE  FENIANS  TO  THE  UNION — 
SOME  NAMES  OF  THEIR  MARTYRS  IN  THE  LOYAL 
CAUSE. 

"  Faithful  here  to  flag  and  laws, 
And  faithful  to  our  sire-land, 
Fighting  for  the  Union  cause 
We  learn  to  fight  for  Ireland." 

That  the  Fenians,  as  a  society,  have  been  zeal 
ously  and  actively  loyal  to  the  cause  of  the  Union 
during  the  whole  civil  war  just  terminated,  we 
shall  presently  cite  the  names  and  numbers  of  the 
officers  and  regiments  they  have  directly  furnished, 


212  THE   FENIAN  BROTHERHOOD. 

to  prove ;  while,  for  the  present,  we  may  content 
ourselves  with  pointing  to  the  late  Brigadier-Gene 
ral  Thomas  A.  Smyth,  Second  Division,  Second 
Corps,  who  was  Centre  of  the  Fenian  Order  for 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac  ;  and  the  late  Colonel 
Matthew  Murphy,  Sixty-ninth  New  York,  Corco 
ran  Legion,  acting  Brigadier-General  in  the  same 
army,  who  was  General  Smith's  associate  both  in 
the  labors  and  perils  of  the  field,  and  in  the  duties 
and  direction  of  the  Fenian  Brotherhood.  These 
are  but  two  of  the  most  prominent  Fenians  who 
have  recently  laid  down  their  lives  for  the  land  of 
their  adoption ;  nor  did  they  fight  any  the  worse 
for  popular  institutions  in  America,  because 
actuated  by  the  hope  of  one  day  assisting  to  give 
the  same  to  Ireland.  That  among  the  members 
of  this  association,  which,  in  its  official  capacity, 
ignores  all  questions  of  American  politics,  there 
may  have  been  not  a  few  holding  the  same  tenets 
as  Mr.  C.  L.  Vallandigham  and  the  brothers  Ben 
jamin  and  Fernando  Wood,  will  be  freely  admit 
ted.  The  doctrines  of  the  "  peace  democracy" 
had,  doubtless,  a  fair  share  of  Irish  believers  ;  for 
all  doctrines  of  such  a  character  are  always  most 
popular  wherever  education  has  been  most  ne 
glected.  But  we  affirm,  without  fear  of  contra 
diction,  that  in  the  ranks  of  the  Fenians  the  great 
majority  of  members  are  and  have  been  actively 
devoted  to  the  cause  of  the  Union — many  thou- 


THE  FENIAN   BROTHERHOOD.  218 

sands  of  them  wearing  swords  or  carrying  mus 
kets  in  its  armies ;  and  for  evidence  that  the 
Brotherhood  have  been  openly  and  steadfastly 
loyal  to  the  government  under  which  they  live, 
we  may  cite  the  second  resolution  of  the  first 
Fenian  Congress,  held  at  Chicago  in  November, 
1863 — since  reaffirmed,  we  may  add,  by  the  second 
Congress  of  the  same  Order,  held  at  Cincinnati  in 
the  first  month  of  the  present  year.  This  resolu 
tion  first  gratefully  acknowledges  that  "  the  exiles 
of  all  countries,  and  of  Ireland  most  numerously, 
have  ever  found  a  home,  personal  freedom,  and 
equal  political  rights "  in  the  American  Union ; 
after  which  the  explicit  declaration  is  made  that 
"  we  (the  Brotherhood)  deem  the  preservation  and 
success  of  the  American  republic  of  supreme  im 
portance,  not  alone  to  ourselves  and  our  fellow- 
citizens,  but  to  the  extension  of  democratic  insti 
tutions,  and  to  the  well-being  and  social  elevation 
of  the  whole  human  race."  In  yet  another  reso 
lution  the  society  deplores  in  touching  terms  the 
"  large  number  of  its  members  who,  as  officers  and 
men,  have  perished  on  the  battle-field  while  de 
fending  the  integrity  of  their  adopted  country," 
winding  up  with  an  expression  of  "  unqualified 
admiration  for  their  bravery  and  loyalty  as  soldiers 
of  the  American  republic."  In  view  of  these 
facts,  how  infamous  must  appear  the  slanders 
which  seek  to  impugn  the  fidelity  of  the  Fenians 


214  THE   FENIAN   BROTHERHOOD. 

to  the  land  of  their  adoption  !  And  how  absurd, 
as  well,  when  we  remember  that  Colonel  John 
O'Mahony,  the  Head  Centre  and  original  founder 
of  the  Brotherhood  in  both  its  branches — in  this 
country  and  in  Ireland — has  always  been,  though 
taking  no  active  part  in  American  politics  or  party 
warfare,  perfectly  unreserved  in  his  avowal  of 
strong  anti-slavery  convictions.  Colonel  O'Maho 
ny,  after  the  abortive  rebellion  of  1848,  retired  to 
France,  where  he  resided  for  several  years  in  Paris 
on  terms  of  intimacy  with  the  most  eminent  phi 
lologists  and  men  of  science  in  that  capital.  He 
then  came  over  to  the  United  States,  where  he 
found  the  vast  majority  of  his  countrymen 
strongly  democratic  and  pro-slavery.  But  from 
the  hour  of  his  landing  to  the  present  day,  his 
voice,  when  he  was  asked  for  an  opinion,  has 
never  ceased  to  condemn  the  former  slave  system 
of  the  South  as  a  crime  against  humanity,  and  a 
fruitful  source  of  injury  to  the  progress  of  truly 
democratic  ideas  in  this  and  other  lands. 

THE  AMERICAN  FENIANS  NOT  A  "SECRET  NOR 
OATH-BOUND"  SOCIETY  WITHIN  THE  CATHOLIC 
PROHIBITION. 

"  They  smote  us  with  the  swearer's  oath 

And  with  the  murderer's  knife ; 
We  in  the  open  field  will  fight 
Fairly  for  land  and  life ; 


THE   FENIAN  BROTHERHOOD.  215 

But  by  tbe  dead,  and  all  their  wrongs, 

And  by  our  hopes  to-day, 
One  of  us  twain  shall  bite  the  dust — 

Or  be  it  we  or  they  1 " 

Another  attempt  to  injure  the  Brotherhood  has 
been  made  by  certain  of  its  enemies,  who  have 
denounced  it  as  "a  secret  society  bound  together 
by  an  oath,"  and  as  such  distinctly  condemned  by 
certain  Catholic  fulminations,  originally  levelled 
against  the  Carbonari,  Freemasons,  and  other 
similar  societies ;  while  the  fa'cts,  on  the  contrary, 
are  :  that  no  pledge  of  secresy,  express  or  implied, 
is  demanded  from  any  candidate  for  membership 
of  the  Fenians  in  America  ;  nor  is  any  oath  what 
ever  required,  at  least  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic 
and  within  the  United  States,  to  entitle  an  acolyte 
to  all  the  privileges  of  becoming  an  accepted 
brother.  Equally  untrue  is  the  vague  allegation 
advanced  by  pro-British  agencies  against  the 
order,  that  it  is,  in  any  American  sense,  an  "  ille 
gal  society,"  or  has  in  view  "illegal  objects" 
likely  to  involve  this  country  in  a  war  with  Great 
Britain.  The  members  of  the  Brotherhood  neither 
contemplate,  nor  have  ever  sanctioned,  any  breach 
of  the  laws  of  the  United  States,  in  their  efforts 
looking  to  the  liberation  of  Ireland  from  English 
thrall ;  and  while  they  would  most  gladly  take 
advantage  of  any  conflict  between  the  Ked  Flag 
and  Banner  of  Stars,  at  once  to  prove  their  fidel- 


216  THE   FENIAN   BROTHERHOOD. 

ity  and  devotion  both  to  the  land  of  their  adop 
tion  and  that  of  their  birth,  the  general  plan  of 
their  organization  (as  will  be  more  fully  developed 
hereafter)  does  not  depend  for  its  hope  of  success 
on  a  war  between  Great  Britain  and  this  country ; 
nor  on  the  levying  of  a  war  against  Great  Britain 
by  any  foreign  land  whatever.  For  the  Fenians 
it  would  be  a  happy  chance  if  either  France  or 
the  United  States  should  go  to  war  with  Eng 
land — thus  at  once  offering  a  supply  of  arms  and 
the  necessary  munitions  of  war  to  the  one  hun 
dred  and  twenty  thousand  able-bodied  brothers 
of  the  order  who  are  now  enrolled  and  being 
rudely  but  efficiently  drilled  high  up  in  the  moun 
tain  solitudes  and  far  down  in  the  moonlit  raths 
of  Innisfail.  Should  no  such  chance  occur,  the 
peaceful  and  semi-public  efforts  of  the  Brother 
hood  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic,  acting  in  con 
cert  with  the  secret,  spy-proof,  and  powerful  or 
ganization  of  insurrectionary  elements — already 
widely  spread  and  daily  spreading  more  widely — 
throughout  Ireland,  will  not  be  without  a  very 
fair  and  flattering  prospect  of  yet  accomplishing 
its  object.  From  this  side  of  the  Atlantic,  the 
Fenians  will  only  have  to  supply  munitions,  arms, 
and  officers — matters  perfectly  open  to  legal  pri 
vate  enterprise  under  the  precedents  established 
by  the  British  government  in  favor  of  the  South 
ern  rebellion ;  while  the  more  active  Fenians,  in 


THE  FENIAN  BROTHERHOOD.  217 

their  native  land,  who  are  under  an  entirely  differ 
ent  and  admittedly  revolutionary  organization,  are 
numerous  and  well  disciplined  enough,  with  such 
help  as  this,  to  drive  every  red  coat  and  red  flag 
beyond  the  limits  of  the  "Isle  of  Saints"  within  a 
month  from  the  kindling  of  the  beltane  fires  upon 
her  holy  hill-tops. 

THE    FENIANS,    AS    A    BODY,    IGNORE    RELIGIOUS 
DIFFERENCES  AND  LOCAL  AMERICAN  POLITICS. 

"  And  oh,  'twould  be  a  noble  task 

To  show  before  mankind, 
How  men  of  every  race  and  creed 

Might  be  by  love  combined. 
Might  be  combined — yet  not  forget 

The  fountain  whence  they  rose — 
As,  filled  by  many  a  rivulet, 

The  lordly  Shannon  flows." 

Our  fellow-citizens  of  Irish  birth  have  too  often 
been  made  the  prey  of  designing  politicians  and 
demagogues  who  have  only  sought  their  favor  for 
the  purpose  of  securing  their  votes — these  traders 
in  Milesianism,  of  whom  we  have  far  too  many 
in  the  Democratic  polifics  of  New  York,  belonging 
to  that  well  known  class  who  are  "  only  Irish  on 
election-day ;"  but  who — on  that  particular  day, 
and  to  suit  their  own  selfish  purposes  of  place 

and  plunder — are  "as  Irish  as  :"    but  no 

matter  what !     No   such  use  of  the   Irish   vote, 
10 


218  THE  FENIAN  BROTHERHOOD. 

however,  is  contemplated  by  the  chiefs  of  the 
Fenian  Brotherhood,  who  in  their  corporate  or 
organized  capacity  take  no  interest  whatever  in 
American  politics — each  member,  of  course,  being 
left  free,  as  an  individual,  to  cast  his  vote  on 
whichever  side  of  any  American  political  ques 
tion  may  to  him  seem  best  or  most  expedient. 
As  Fenians,  their  only  thoughts  are  of  Ireland  ; 
and  their  action  as  Fenians  can  have  only  one 
object — the  independence  and  consequent  happi 
ness  of  the  Old  Land  to  which  they  are  bound 
by  ties  either  of  blood,  birth,  or  affection  ;  and  in 
order  to  exclude  effectually  any  designs  that 
might  be  entertained  by  political  demagogues  to 
turn  their  pure  national  organization  to  base  party 
uses,  connected  with  our  local  wranglings  for 
office  and  "  the  spoils " — it  has  been  wisely 
resolved  and  solemnly  set  forth  in  the  Fenian 
constitution,  "  that  every  question  relating  to  the 
internal  politics  of  America  and  the  quarrels  of 
American  partisans,  together  with  all  subjects 
relating  to  differences  in  religion,  shall  be  abso 
lutely  and  for  ever  excluded  from  the  councils  and 
deliberations  of  the  Fenian  Brotherhood,  and  be 
declared  totally  foreign  to  the  objects  and  designs 
of  the  Order  " — than  which  it  would  be  difficult 
to  find  an  instance  wherein  our  impulsive  Mile 
sian  fellow-citizens  have  arrived  at  a  more  wise 
conclusion.  Every  man  of  Irish  birth  or  descent 


THE  FENIAN"  BROTHERHOOD.       219 

who  lives  on  the  American  continent,  and  all 
others  who  are  friendly  to  the  liberation  of  Ire 
land,  are  invited  to  join  them,  "  without  distinction 
of  class  or  creed ;"  provided  only  that  "  their 
characters  be  unblemished,"  and  their  devotion  to 
the  main  aim  of  the  Brotherhood  admitting  no 
reasonable  question. 

OKIGIN   OF  THE   FENIAN  BROTHERHOOD — HOW   IT 

STARTED  AS  THE  "  E.  M.  A." 

"  They  will  not  fail,  the  Fenian  race ! 
They  shall  not  fail,  the  ancient  race  ! 
The  cry  swells  loud,  from  shore  to  shore, 
From  emerald  vale  to  mountain  hoar, 
From  altar  high,  to  market  place, 
They  shall  not  fail,  the  Fenian  race  !" 

And  now,  having  stated  what  the  Fenians  are 
not,  and  having  briefly  but  sufficiently,  we  hope, 
refuted  the  pro-British  slanders  levelled  against 
their  organization,  it  is  high  time,  perhaps,  that 
we  commence  telling  what  they  are ;  and  what 
progress  they  have  made  in  numbers,  influence, 
and  discipline  since  the  year  1859 — the  year  in 
which,  after  two  previous  years  of  drifting  expe 
riment  by  Colonel  John  O'Mahony  and  the  late 
Lieutenant-Colonel  Michael  Doheny,  their  organi 
zation  began  to  settle  down  into  its  present  shape 
and  with  its  present  title.  Previously,  in  1857, 


220  THE   FENIAN   BROTHERHOOD. 

its  inchoate  germ  had  been  planted  by  the  gentle 
men  we  have  named,  in  an  organization  called  the 
"  Emmett  Monument  Association,"  or  the  "  E.  M. 
A."— the  point  of  this  name  being  that  Kobert 
Emmett,  when  about  being  hung  by  the  brutal 
sentence  of  Lord  Clare,  asked  of  his  countrymen 
that  no  monument  might  be  erected  to  his  memory 
until  his  country  should  have  become  free  of 
British  thrall — an  independent  republic. 

"  Far  better  the  silent,  unepitaphed  gloom, 
Until  Ireland,  a  nation,  can  build  me  a  tomb." 

An  association,  therefore,  which  proposed  to 
build  a  monument  to  Robert  Emmett  on  Irish  soil, 
implied  an  effort  for  the  overthrow  of  British 
power  in  Ireland  ;  arid  this  was  directly  the  object 
of  the  "  E.  M.  A.,"  as  much  as  it  now  is  of  the 
Fenian  Brotherhood.  The  term  "  Fenian  "  is,  we 
suppose,  an  Irish  translation  or  derivative  from 
the  word  Phoenician — the  Phoenicians  having  been 
the  earliest  colonists  of  Ireland,  although  other 
authorities  trace  the  origin  back  to  King  Fion,  one 
of  the  earliest  kings  of  Ireland.  Be  this  as  it 
may,  Colonel  O'Mahony,  the  Head  Centre  of  the 
Order,  is  a  thorough  master  of  the  old  Erse  or 
Irish  tongue,  as  witness  his  translation  of  Keat- 
ing's  History  of  Ireland  ;  and  in  the  term 
"  Fenian  "  he  has  embodied  the  name  recognised 
by  Irishmen  as  that  relating  to  the  period  in 


THE  FENIAN   BROTHERHOOD.  221 

which  their  ancestors  were  most  cultivated,  pros 
perous,  happy,  and  independent. 

ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  FENIANS  IN  THE  UNITED 
STATES. — THEIR  HEAD  CENTRE,  HIS  POWERS 
AND  DUTIES. 

"  Kemember  with  a  pitying  love  the  hapless  land  that  bore 

you; 

At  every  gentle  season  be  its  gentle  form  before  you ; 
When  the  Christmas  candles  are  lighted,  and  the"  holly 

and  ivy  glisten, 
Let  your  eye  look  back  to  a  vanished  land — to  a  voice 

that  is  silent — listen !" 

x 

The  chief  officer  of  the  order  in  the  United 
States  and  other  countries  is  called  the  Head 
Centre  of  North  America — an  office  filled,  as 
before  mentioned,  by  Colonel  John  O'Mahony,  a 
gentleman  of  old  and  honorable  Irish  lineage, 
whose  ancestors  for  a  thousand  years  back  have 
clung  to  the  picturesque  sides  and  fruitful  valleys 
of  the  Comeragh  mountains,  in  the  southwest  of 
Ireland.  This  Head  Centre  of  the  Order  in  the 
United  States  is  elected  annually  by  a  general 
congress,  composed  of  the  various  State  Centres 
ex  officio,  and  one  delegate  from  each  Circle  in 
good  standing,  containing  not  less  than  one  hun 
dred  members — with  one  additional  delegate 
from  each  Circle  containing  two  hundred  mem 
bers  and  over.  This  Head  Centre  has  very 


222  THE  FENIAN   BROTHERHOOD. 

extensive  powers,  and  is  the  only  medium  of  com 
munication  between  the  Fenians  on  this  side  of  the 
Atlantic,  where  their  existence  is  legal  and  recog 
nised,  and  the  Fenians  in  Ireland  and  other  pro 
vinces  under  the  British  government,  where  they 
are  regarded  as  conspirators  of  the  blackest  dye, 
and  would  be  transported  if  caught.  All  Circles, 
to  be  entitled  to  representation  in  this  Congress, 
must  be  "in  good  standing  " — i.e.  must  have  made 
regular  and  satisfactory  monthly  reports  for  at 
least  the  two  months  preceding,  through  the  imme 
diate  District  Centre  to  the  State  Centre — the 
State  Centre  forwarding  these  to  the  headquarters 
of  the  Head  Centre  in  this  city.  It  is,  in  fact,  a 
system  precisely  similar  to  the  tri-monthly  reports 
in  our  armies — the  Adjutant  of  each  regiment  for 
warding  his  report  to  the  brigade  Adjutant,  -who 
forwards  it  to  the  Assistant  Adjutant-General  of 
Division,  who  then  transmits  it,  through  corps  and 
department  headquarters,  to  the  Adjutant-General 
of  the  Army. 

CENTRAL    COUNCIL   OF    FENIANS — THEIR    NAMES, 


Some  on  the  shores  of  foreign  lands 
Their  weary  heads  have  laid, 

And  by  the  stranger's  careless  hands 
Their  lonely  graves  were  made ; 


THE   FENIAN  BROTHERHOOD.  223 

But  though  their  clay  be  far  away 

Beyond  the  Atlantic's  foam, 
In  true  men,  like  you  men, 

Their  spirit 's  still  at  home." 

The  Head  Centre  is  assisted  by  a  kind  of 
cabinet  called  the  Central  Council  of  Ten,  who 
are  nominated  by  himself,  but  must  be  confirmed 
by  the  next  Congress  of  the  Order ;  and  the  same 
mode  of  appointment  holds  good  with  regard  to 
the  Central  Treasurer,  and  Assistant  Treasurer, 
and  the  Central  Secretaries — the  financial  officers 
of  the  Brotherhood  having  to  furnish  securities 
approved  by  the  Central  Council.  This  Council 
at  present  consists  of  the  following  eminent  gen 
tlemen,  most  of  whom  are  Irish  by  birth  as  well 
as  by  blood  : — James  Gibbons,  Esq.,  an  extensive 
printer  of  Philadelphia  ;  Henry  O'Clarence  McCar 
thy,  of  New  York  ;  P.  W.  Dunne,  Esq.,  of  Peoria, 
111. ;  William  Griffin,  a  respected  merchant  of 
Madison,  Ind. ;  William  Sullivan,  Esq.,  of  Tifflin, 
Ohio ;  William  R.  Roberts,  Esq.,  of  New  York  ; 
Michael  Scanlan,  of  Chicago ;  Patrick  J.  Meehan, 
editor  of  the  Irish  American ;  and  P.  Bannon, 
Esq.,  of  Louisville,  Ky.  Brigadier-General  Tho 
mas  A.  Smyth,  recently  killed  before  Richmond, 
under  General  Sheridan,  was  the  tenth  member 
of  the  Council — his  brother  in  arms  and  Fenian- 
ism,  the  gallant  General  Matthew  Murphy,  dying 
in  hospital  at  City  Point  of  wounds  previously 


224  THE  FENIAN   BROTHERHOOD. 

received  in  the  movement  oil  Hatcher's  Eun,  a 
few  days  after  hearing  of  General  Smyth's  un 
timely  taking  off.  This  Central  Council  elects 
its  own  President  and  other  officers — its  President 
assuming  the  duties  of  the  Head  Centre  in  case 
of  the  death,  removal,  resignation,  or  impeach 
ment  of  that  officer.  This  Central  Council  also 
may  call  conventions  of  all  State  Centres,  or  a 
general  congress,  in  case  of  any  emergency ;  and 
such  bodies  when  called  together  have  power  to 
impeach  or  remove  any  officer.  The  Council,  too, 
must  audit  and  approve  all  financial  transactions 
of  the  Brotherhood,  and  is  further  charged  with 
the  duty  of  reporting  progress  once  a  year  to  each 
session  of  the  Fenian  Congress.  The  Central 
Treasurer  of  the  Order  is  Patrick  O'Eourke, 
Esq.,  and  the  Assistant  Treasurer  is  Patrick 
Keenan,  Esq.,  both  of  New  York  city. 

THE    STATE     CENTRES — HOW    APPOINTED — THEIR 
NAMES  AND  OTHER  PARTICULARS. 

"  The  patient  dint  and  powder  shock, 
Can  split  an  empire  like  a  rock." 

The  State  Centres  of  the  order  are  appointed 
and  commissioned  by  the  Head  Centre  on  the 
recommendation  of  a  majority  of  delegates  from 
the  various  Circles  entitled  to  vote  in  their  respec 
tive  States.  The  Head  Centre,  however,  has 
power  to  reject  such  nominations,  being  responsi- 


THE   FENIAN   BROTHERHOOD.  225 

ble  to  the  next  annual  congress  for  his  action  ; 
and  with  the  assent  of  the  Central  Council  may 
even  remove  such  State  Centres  as  may  be  agreed 
upon,  and  appoint  other  and  more  trustworthy 
men  in  their  places.  The  State  Centres  are 
charged  with  establishing  District  Centres,  and 
organizing  circles  in  their  respective  States  or 
Territories,  settling  all  minor  disputes  and  report 
ing  twice  a  month  to  the  Head  Centre  the  pro 
gress,  numbers,  and  financial  condition  of  their 
charges.  The  names,  occupations,  and  residences 
of  the  various  District  and  State  Centres,  so  far  as 
we  have  been  able  to  collect  them,  run  as  follows : 
— New  York,  D.  O'Sullivan,  of  Auburn,  lawyer; 
Illinois,  Michael  Scanlan,  of  Chicago,  merchant ; 
Indiana,  Bernard  Dailey,  of  Delphi,  lawyer  ;  Ohio, 
J.  W.  Fitzgerald,  of  Columbus,  merchant ;  Dis 
trict  of  Columbia,  P.  H.  Donegan,  of  Washing 
ton,  lawyer;  Missouri,  James  McGrath,  of  St. 
Louis,  lawyer;  Kentucky,  P.  Bannon,  of  Louis 
ville,  merchant;  Pennsylvania,  Jarncs  Gibbons, 
of  Philadelphia,  printer ;  Massachusetts,  Daniel 
Donovan,  of  Lawrence,  engineer;  Wisconsin, 
John  A.  Byrne,  of  Madison,  farmer  and  mer 
chant  ;  Michigan,  Judge  Miles  J.  O'Keilly,  of 
Detroit  (own  cousin  to  Private  Miles,  of 
the  Tenth  Army  Corps);  California,  Jeremiah 
Kavanagh,  of  San  Francisco,  engineer;  New 
Hampshire,  Cornelius  Healy,  Captain  United 
10* 


226  THE  FENIAN  BROTHERHOOD. 

States  Volunteers ;  Iowa,  Patrick  Gibbons,  of 
Keokuk,  merchant;  Oregon,  S.  J.  McCormick, 
merchant;  Nevada,  Andrew  O'Connell,  Esq. 
(related  to  the  Irish  "  Liberator ");  and  District 
of  Manhattan,  James  J.  Eogers,  lawyer.  For 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  the  late  lamented 
General  Smyth  was  Centre,  having  succeeded  the 
late  Brigadier-General  Corcoran  in  that  capacity  ; 
and  in  all  our  other  great  armies  the  commissioned 
and  enlisted  Fenians  and  men  have  elected  similar 
officers. 

NUMBER  OF  CIRCLES  IN  EACH  STATE  BY  LAST 
REPORTS — CONTRIBUTIONS  TO  OUR  ARMY  AND 
NAVY. 

"  They  fought  as  they  revelled,  fast,  furious,  and  blind, 
And  they  left  in  each  battle  some  brothers  behind ; 
Till  in  far  foreign  fields,  from  Dunkirk  to  Belgrade, 
Slept  the  soldiers  and  chiefs  of  the  Irish  Brigade." 

The  Circles  of  the  Brotherhood  range  in  num 
ber  of  members  from  sixty,  the  minimum,  to 
about  five  hundred — probably  averaging  through 
out  the  States  about  two  hundred  and  thirty  mem 
bers  each.  Of  these  circles,  Connecticut,  three 
months  ago,  had  eight ;  California,  thirteen  ;  Dela 
ware,  three ;  Indiana,  twenty -nine  ;  Illinois,  twenty 
six ;  Iowa,  fifteen ;  Kentucky,  eight ;  Kansas, 
three;  Louisiana,  one;  Missouri,  nine;  Montana 
Territory,  two ;  Maine,  three ;  Michigan,  nine  • 


THE   FENIAN   BROTHERHOOD.  227 

Minnesota,  three ;  Massachusetts,  sixty-five ;  Ne 
vada,  three;  New  Hampshire,  nine;  New  York 
State,  forty-one,  and  in  District  of  Manhattan 
(New  York  city),  twenty-six ;  New  Jersey,  five  ; 
Ohio,  twenty -two  ;  Oregon,  three  ;  Pennsylvania, 
twenty -seven ;  Ehode  Island,  ten ;  Tennessee, 
four;  Yermont,  six;  Wisconsin,  eleven;  Army 
and  Navy,  fifteen — the  Fenians  of  this  latter 
naval  and  military  class,  of  whom  there  were 
14,620  by  last  reports,  voting  by  proxy  on  certifi 
cates  of  delegation  supplied  to  them  from  the 
office  of  the  Head  Centre.  In  the  United  States 
to-day  it  is  estimated  that  there  are  about  eighty 
thousand  Fenian  Brothers*  in  good  standing,  it  not 
being  required  of  members  on  this  side  of  the 
Atlantic  that  they  shall  be  able-bodied  or  take  the 
oath  of  military  service  and  obedience — two  points 
which  are  the  first  pre-requisites  in  the  Fenian 
Army  of  Independence  which  is  being  organized 
in  Ireland,  and  already  numbers  over  sixty-five 
thousand  men.  Of  these,  however,  and  their  ela 
borate  military  and  spy-proof  organization,  we 
shall  speak  hereafter.  Of  the  contributions  of 
men  and  officers  made  by  the  Fenians  to  our  army 
we  can  only  call  attention  to  a  few  of  the  more 
prominent  examples  in  regiments  sent  from  New 

*  Since  this  account  was  written,  the  numbers  of  the  Fenian 
Brotherhood  in  the  United  States  and  Canadas  have  at  least 
trebled. 


228  THE   FENIAN   BROTHERHOOD. 

York,  the  Central  Secretaries  of  the  Brotherhood  in 
the  various  States  being  now  engaged  in  compiling 
full  statistics  on  this  interesting  point.  Nearly  all 
the  officers  of  General  T.  F.  Meagher's  original 
and  famous  Irish  Brigade,  as  also  of  the  Corcoran 
Legion  (including  Corcoran  and  Meagher),  were 
Fenians.  Colonel  Mclvor,  of  the  Sixty -ninth 
New  York,  belongs  to  the  Order,  as  does  also 
Colonel  Gleason,  of  the  Sixty-third,  formerly  of 
the  Pope's  Foreign  Legion  serving  in  Italy.  In 
the  Corcoran  Legion  alone,  last  year,  twenty-four 
Fenian  officers  were  killed  or  crippled,  including 
Colonel  Murphy.  The  One  Hundred  and  Sixty- 
fourth  New  York  was  originally  raised  and  offi 
cered  by  Fenians  who  had  graduated  in  the  Nine 
ty-ninth  New  York  State  Militia,  otherwise  called 
the  Phoenix  or  Fenian  regiment — a  regiment 
which  has  educated  and  sent  into  the  army  three 
full  sets  of  officers  within  the  past  four  years, 
together  with  over  twelve  hundred  men  of  the 
rank  and  file.  In  Milford,  Mass.,  out  of  a  Circle 
of  one  hundred  and  fifteen  Fenians  previous  to 
the  war,  eighty  at  once  enlisted  in  a  body  under 
their  Centre,  Major  Peard,  and  of  these  but 
twenty-three  are  now  alive.  In  Connecticut  one 
whole  Circle,  of  about  two  hundred,  volunteered 
unanimously ;  but,  as  their  State  quota  was  full, 
finally  went  off  in  the  Tenth  Ohio  infantry,  as  the 
records  of  that  State  will  show.  Two-thirds  of 


THE   FENIAN   BROTHERHOOD.  229 

the  Ninth  Massachusetts  infantry  were  Fenians, 
who  went  off  under  a  Fenian  Colonel,  who  was 
shot  through  the  head  at  the  head  of  his  regiment. 
The  "  Douglas  Brigade"  of  Illinois,  chiefly  raised 
in  Chicago,  was  also  in  greater  part  Fenian ;  as 
was  also  the  brigade  raised  by  the  lamented  Colo 
nel  Mulligan,  who  was  high  up  in  the  Order.  In 
the  Excelsior  Brigade,  a  large  proportion  of  the 
officers  were  Fenians  ;  and  the  Forty -second  New 
York,  raised  by  the  late  Colonel  William  D.  Ken 
nedy,  was  chiefly  organized  by  Lieutenant-Colonel 
Michael  Doheny,  one  of  the  original  founders  of 
the  Fenian  Order,  whose  two  sons,  both  of  the 
same  faith,  have  since  done  gallant  service  and  re 
ceived  glorious  wounds  in  the  Army  of  the  Poto 
mac.  In  the  Committee  on  Military  Affairs  of 
the  Fenian  Congress,  described  further  on,  the 
names  of  some  of  the  more  prominent  Fenian 
officers  of  our  Western  armies  will  be  found ;  and 
when  the  reports  of  the  various  State  Secretaries, 
now  ordered,  giving  the  numbers  of  men  and  the 
names  of  all  Fenian  officers  who  have  served  in 
the  armies  and  war  vessels  of  the  United  States 
shall  have  been  received  and  compiled,  the  slander 
that  the  Brotherhood  has  been  wanting  in  true 
allegiance  to  the  land  of  their  adoption  will  receive 
a  withering  refutation. 


230  THE   FENIAN  BROTHERHOOD. 


STANDING  COMMITTEES  OF  THE    ORDER  APPOINT 
ED  BY  LAST  ANNUAL   CONGRESS. 

The  Committee  on  Military  Affairs  of  the 
Brotherhood  consists  exclusively  of  officers  who 
are  now  serving  or  have  served  a  full  term  in  the 
army  of  the  United  States,  and  their  names  run 
as  follows : — Colonel  S.  J.  McGroarty,  of  Ohio  ; 
Colonel  B.  F.  Mullen,  of  Indiana ;  Colonel  John 
II.  Gleason,  Army  of  the  Potomac ;  Lieutenant 
Colonel  P.  J.  Downing,  of  New  Jersey ;  Lieuten 
ant  Colonel  Patrick  Leonard,  of  New  York ;  Major 
Matthew  Donavan,  of  Massachusetts ;  and  Cap 
tains  Michael  Bailey,  of  New  York  ;  Joseph  Pol 
lard,  of  Khode  Island ;  Michael  Scanlan,  of  Mas 
sachusetts  ;  Cornelius  O'Brien,  of  Connecticut ; 
Hugh  Rodgers  and  Thomas  Finley,  of  Pennsyl 
vania  ;  and  Patrick  K.  Walsh,  of  Ohio. 

The  Committee  of  Foreign  Affairs  is  composed 
of  Lawrence  Yerdon,  Michigan ;  P.  A.  Sinnott, 
Massachusetts ;  Captain  Thomas  K.  Barrett,  Illi 
nois  ;  "VY.  J.  Hynes,  Massachusetts  ;  J.  C.  O'Brien, 
New  York  ;  Thomas  Heanie,  Illinois  ;  J.  W.  Fitz 
gerald,  Ohio ;  and  John  A.  Geary,  of  Kentucky. 
The  Committee  on  Resolutions  has  but  two  mem 
bers — Colonel  W.  G.  Halpin,  of  the  Army  of  the 
Cumberland,  and  James  McDermott,  Esq.,  of 
Kentucky. 

The  Committee  on  Ways  and  Means  has  six 


THE   FENIAN  BROTHERHOOD.  231 

members  : — P.  W.  Dunne,  of  Illinois ;  Patrick 
Gibbons,  of  Iowa ;  P.  Bannon,  of  Kentucky ; 
Mortimer  Scanlon,  of  Illinois;  Patrick  Keenan, 
of  New  York ;  and  William  Moran,  of  Missouri. 

The  Committee  on  Government  and  By-Laws 
consists  of  nine : — Miles  J.  O'Reilly,  of  Michigan  ; 
B.  Higgins,  of  New  York;  P.  A.  Collins,  of 
Massachusetts  ;  Thomas  McCarthy,  of  Tennessee ; 
Thomas  Hanley,  of  New  York ;  J.  McDermott, 
and  P.  F.  Walsh.  Central  Organizers  at  large — 
A.  Wynne  of  Pennsylvania,  and  J.  J.  Rogers  of 
New  York. 

The  Committee  on  the  Fenians  in  Ireland  has 
only  three  members — A.  L.  Morrison,  of  Illinois  ; 
J.  P.  Hodnett,  of  New  Jersey ;  and  James  F. 
Finerty,  of  Indiana.  The  name  of  the  American 
Chief  Fenian  Envoy  to  the  Irish  Revolutionary 
Brotherhood  of  the  Green  Isle,  is  of  course,  for 
obvious  reasons,  not  publicly  stated — there  being 
no  inclination  here  to  have  the  British  govern 
ment  know  any  more  than  it  already  knows  about 
his  movements.  All  the  reports  of  this  officer 
and  his  subordinates,  we  may  say,  however,  as  to 
the  cost  of  arms  in  Ireland,  their  quantity,  and 
the  kind  and  quality  of  ordnance  and  ordnance 
stores  now  in  the  possession  of  the  "I.  R.  B.,"  or 
Irish  Republican  Brotherhood,  together  with  his 
reports  and  accompanying  documents  on  all  mat 
ters  pertaining  to  the  military  organization  of  the 


232  THE  FENIAN  BROTHERHOOD. 

said  "  I.  E.  B."  in  Ireland — all  these  matters  are 
duly  referred  at  each  annual  Congress  to  the  Com 
mittee  on  Military  Affairs,  for  their  action  and 
report  to  the  Head  Centre  of  the  Brotherhood  in 
North  America. 

CENTRES  OF  CIRCLES. — HOW  ELECTED,  AND  THEIR 
DUTIES. — PLEDGE,  INITIATION  FEE,  MONTHLY 
DUES,  AND  QUALIFICATIONS. 

"  Come  trample  down  their  robber  rule,  and  smite  its  venal 

spawn, 
Their  foreign  laws,  their  foreign  church,  their  ermine, 

and  their  lawn, 
With  all  the  specious  fry  of  fraud  that  robbed  us  of  our 

own, 
And  plant  our  ancient  laws  again  beneath  our  lineal 

throne  ! 
The  green  alone  shall  stream  above  our  native  field  and 

flood— 
The  spotless  green — save  where  its  folds  are  gemmed 

with  Saxon  blood !" 

Circles  are  first  formed  by  State  agents,  who 
visit  different  localities,  beat  up  recruits,  and  ini 
tiate  enough  members  to  make  a  provisional 
organization.  This  organization  then  elects  a 
provisional  Centre,  who  must  fill  up  the  Circle  to 
at  least  sixty  before  applying  to  the  State  Centre 
for  his  commission,  which  will  authorize  his 
Circle  to  send  a  delegate  to  the  next  Fenian  Con 
gress.  The  Circle  numbering  sixty,  its  members 


THE   FENIAN  BROTHERHOOD.  233 

elect  a  permanent  Centre,  who,  if  approved  by 
the  State  Centre  and  Head  Centre,  will  then  be 
approved  and  confirmed  by  the  latter.  These 
centres,  on  the  25th  of  each  month,  make  out  in 
duplicate  full  reports  of  all  their  proceedings, 
receipts  and  disbursements,  increase  or  decrease 
of  members,  etc. — one  copy  being  sent  to  the  State 
Centre  and  the  other  forwarded  for  file  and  com 
parison  to  the  Head  Centre's  headquarters.  Any 
Circle  failing  to  report  for  three  months  will  be 
set  down  as  "in  bad  standing,"  and  will  be  cut 
off  from  connection  unless  full  and  satisfactory 
explanations  are  forwarded.  The  initiation  fees 
of  each  Circle  shall  not  be  less  than  one  dollar — 
many  rich  and  patriotic  members  having  volun 
teered  as  high  as  five  hundred  dollars ;  and  the 
monthly  dues  of  each  member  shall  not  be  less 
than  ten  cents — about  fifty  cents  per  month  being 
the  average  actually  paid  in  by  each  member. 
Candidates  for  membership  must  be  proposed  by 
one  Fenian  Brother  and  seconded  by  another. 
Their  names,  and  evidence  as  to  their  good  moral 
character,  are  then  submitted  to  the  Committee  of 
Safety  of  each  Circle— this  committee  consisting 
of  not  less  than  three  nor  more  than  seven  of  the 
most  discreet  and  trustworthy  members  of  each 
circle.  This  committee  is  nominated  by  the  Cen 
tre  of  each  Circle — but  must  be  approved  by  a 
majority  vote  of  all  the  members ;  and  its  report 


234  THE   FENIAN  BROTHERHOOD. 

on  each  candidate  for  admission  has  to  be  submit 
ted  for  acceptance  or  rejection  to  a  regular  meet 
ing  of  the  Circle.  If  the  candidate  for  admission 
be  accepted,  he  then  (in  the  United  States)  is  only 
asked  to  make  the  following  very  simple  declara 
tion,  which  is  as  little  of  an  oath  as  can  safely 
be  asked :  "I  solemnly  pledge  my  sacred  word  of 
honor  as  a  truthful  and  honest  man,  that  I  will 
labor  with  earnest  zeal  for  the  liberation  of  Ireland 
from  the  yoke  of  England,  and  for  the  establish 
ment  of  a  free  and  independent  government  on  the 
Irish  soil ;  that  I  will  implicitly  obey  the  commands 
of  my  superior  officers  in  the  Fenian  Brotherhood 
in  all  things  appertaining  to  my  duties  as  a  member 
thereof;  that  I  will  faithfully  discharge  my  duties 
of  membership  as  laid  down  in  the  constitution 
and  by-laws  thereof ;  that  I  will  do  my  utmost  to 
promote  feelings  of  love,  harmony,  and  kindly 
forbearance  among  all  Irishmen ;  and  that  I  will 
foster,  defend,  and  propagate  the  aforesaid  Fenian 
Brotherhood  to  the  utmost  of  my  power."  All 
political  discussions  as  to  any  but  Irish  national 
affairs  are  peremptorily  excluded  from  the  delibe 
rations  of  Circles ;  while  religious  discussions  of 
any  kind  are  excluded  altogether.  Centres  of 
Circles  correspond  with  State  Centres ;  State  Cen 
tres  with  the  Head  Centre.  All  correspondence 
with  the  Brothers  in  Ireland,  the  Canadas,  or 
elsewhere  in  foreign  parts,  has  to  pass  through  the 


THE   FENIAN  BROTHERHOOD.  235 

Head  Centre — a  law  the  more  easily  enforced,  as 
only  the  Head  Centre  and  Central  Council  know 
the  true  names  and  addresses  of  the  officers  of  the 
"  I.  K.  B."  and  other  brotherhoods  in  England, 
the  Canadas,  and  elsewhere.  Members  of  the 
"  I.  K.  B."  coming  from  Ireland,  must  first  be 
certified  by  the  Head  Centre,  to  whom  they  shall 
show  their  credentials  as  brothers  in  good  stand 
ing  when  they  left  their  native  land.  The  names 
of  all  Fenian  Brothers — or  members  of  the 
"I.  K.  B."  expelled  for  perfidy — are  sent  by  the 
Head  Centre  to  all  State  Centres,  these  latter  com 
municating  them  to  all  their  subordinate  Centres 
of  Circles.  When  brothers  are  about  changing 
their  places  of  residence,  they  must  procure, 
for  a  trifling  fee,  letters  of  introduction  from  the 
Centre  of  their  late  Circle  to  the  Circle  they  are 
about  joining.  If  these  are  in  different  States, 
the  introduction  must  be  avouched  as  correct  by 
the  State  Centres  as  well.  The  decision  of  the 
Head  Centre,  approved  by  a  majority  of  the  Cen 
tral  Council,  is  absolute  upon  all  points  within  the 
association  ;  and  now  we  shall  conclude  this — the 
American — branch  of  our  subject  by  giving  the 
new  charter-song  of  the  cis- Atlantic  Fenians,  as 
the  same  is  chorussed  in  their  regular  monthly 
meetings  and  other  festive  or  business  celebra 
tions.  It  was  written  some  years  ago  by  a  Fenian 
private  soldier  of  the  old  Tenth  Army  Corps,  and 


236  THE  FENIAN  BROTHERHOOD. 

goes  glibly  to  the  air  of  that  one  of  Moore's  Irish 
melodies  commencing,  u  To  ladies'  eyes  around, 
boys,  we  can't  refuse,  we  can't  refuse :"  and  its 
author  called  it : — 

THE    FENIAN  RALLYING  SONG. 

Where  glory's  beams  are  seen,  boys, 

To  cheer  the  way,  to  cheer  the  way, 
We  bear  the  Emerald  Green,  boys, 

And  clear  the  way,  and  clear  the  way ; 
Our  flag  shall  foremost  be,  boys, 

In  battle  fray,  in  battle  fray, 
When  the  Fenians  cross  the  sea,  boys, 

And  clear  the  way,  and  clear  the  way. 

That  home  where  valor  first,  boys, 

In  all  her  charms,  in  all  her  charms, 
Roused  up  the  souls  she  nurs'd,  boys. 

And  called  to  arms,  and  called  to  armsj 
One  trial  more  'tis  worth,  boys, 

'Tis  worth  our  while,  'tis  worth  our  while, 
To  drive  the  tyrant  forth,  boys, 

And  free  our  isle,  and  free  our  isle ! 

We  love  the  generous  land,  boys, 

In  which  we  live,  in  which  we  live  ; 
And  which  a  welcome  grand,  boys, 

To  all  doth  give,  to  all  doth  give. 
May  Grod  upon  it  smile,  boys, 

And  swell  its  fame,  and  swell  its  fame  1 
But  we  don't  forget  the  isle,  boys, 

Fom  whence  we  came,  from  whence  we  came. 


THE   FENIAN   BROTHERHOOD.  237 

Things  soon  may  take  a  turn,  boys, 
There's  no  one  knows,  there's  no  one  knows, 

When  the  Stars  and  Stripes  may  burn,  boys, 
Against  our  foes,  against  our  foes ; 

When  Yankee  guns  shall  thunder 
On  Britain's  coast,  on  Britain's  coast, 

And  land,  our  green  flag  under, 
The  Fenian  host,  the  Fenian  host ! 

Oh,  let  us  pray  to  God,  boys, 

To  grant  the  day,  to  grant  the  day, 
We  may  press  our  native,  sod,  boys, 

In  linked  array,  in  linked  array  1 
Let  them  give  us  arms  and  ships,  boys, 

We  ask  no  more,  we  ask  no  more ; 
And  Ireland's  long  eclipse,  boys, 

Will  soon  be  o'er,  will  soon  be  o'er ! 

THE  FENIANS,  OR  "l.  R.  B.,"  IN  IRELAND — THEY 
ARE  BOTH  SECRET  AND  OATH-BOUND— THEY 
DRILL  AND  ARE  RECEIVING  ARMS — THE  NEW 
IRISH  REPUBLIC  TO  BE  A  STATE  OF  THE  UNION. 

"  A  plenteous  place  is  Ireland  for  hospitable  cheer, 
Where  the  wholesome  fruit  is  bursting  from  the  yellow 

barley  ear ; 
There  is  honey  in   the   trees  where   her  misty  vales 

expand, 
And  her  forest  paths,  in  summer,  are  by  falling  waters 

fanned ; 
There  is  dew  at  high  noontide  there,  and  springs  in  the 

yellow  sand 
On  the  fair  hills  of  holy  Ireland." 


238  THE  FENIAN  BROTHERHOOD. 

In  all  the  foregoing  developments  we  have 
been  speaking  exclusively  of  the  Fenian  Brother 
hood  in  the  United  States,  where  its  aims,  opera 
tions,  and  existence  are  strictly  legal,  and  where 
its  proceedings  are,  in  consequence,  comparatively 
open.  We  now  approach  that  branch  of  it  exist 
ing  in  Ireland,  and  known  as  the  "  I.  E.  B.," 
which  is,  in  very  deadly  earnest,  "a  secret  and 
oath-bound  conspiracy,"  its  mechanism  being  as 
nearly  spy-proof  as  human  ingenuity  can  conceive 
or  make  it ;  and  its  organization  having  thus  far 
defied  the  whole  efforts,  money,  labor,  tyranny, 
and  seductions  of  the  British  government  to  break 
it  up,  or  even  unravel  to  one-tenth  of  its  extent 
any  single  one  of  the  many  thousand  cords  which 
are  gradually  being  woven  around  that  now  corpu 
lent  and  fast-failing  monster — the  British  lion,  in 
Ireland.  If  it  be  a  sin  to  be  "oath-bound"  and 
"secret,"  where  to  be  open  is  to  court  a  felon's 
cell  and  transportation  to  Botany  Bay,  through 
means  of  a  "perjured  sheriff,  packed  jury,  and 
partisan  judge,"  then  are  there  over  sixty -five 
thousand  very  heinous  and  able-bodied  sinners  in 
Ireland  this  day.  In  the  United  States  the 
Fenians  are  not  required  to  be  able-bodied,  nor 
are  they  sworn  into  military  service,  nor  are  they 
compelled  to  drill  as  soldiers,  because  the  object 
of  the  Order  here  is  only  to  prepare  Ireland  by 
internal  organization,  and  by  furnishing  arms,  ord- 


THE   FENIAN   BKOTHEEHOOD.  239 

nance  stores,  and  officers  for  the  final  struggle. 
But  in  Ireland  each  Fenian,  or  member  of  the 
"I.  E.  B.,"  has  to  be  fit  for  the  duties  and  trials  of 
the  camp  ;  he  must  take  the  most  solemn  oath  of 
military  obedience  and  readiness  to  turn  out 
against  the  "  red-coats"  whenever  called  upon  by 
his  next  superior  officer ;  and  he  must  meanwhile 
attend  regularly  to  the  drill  and  other  exercises 
which  are  now  being  vigorously  enforced  in 
every  township  and  parish  throughout  the  Eme 
rald  Isle  by  the  officers,  drill  sergeants,  and  military 
sub-envoys  sent  over  by  the  Order  from  America, 
and  such  other  teachers  in  this  line  as  may  be 
otherwise  provided  for  their  instruction.  Even 
with  the  present  force  of  the  "I.  E.  B."  well 
armed,  and  with  from  three  to  five  thousand  vete 
ran  officers  and  non-commissioned  officers  of  our 
late  civil  war  to  command  them,  it  would  not  take 
a  campaign  of  three  months  to  leave  no  single 
red-coat  or  red  flag  from  Kinsale  to  the  Giants' 
Causeway.  At  present  the  great  difficulty  con 
sists  in  smuggling  arms  and  ammunition  into  the 
country,  and  distributing  the  same  after  they  have 
reached  the  various  secret  depots  along  the  Irish 
coast.  Any  trouble  between  either  France  or  the 
United  States  and  England  would  at  once  obviate 
this  at  present  great  cause  of  delay  and  embarrass 
ment — more  than  two-thirds  of  the  Fenians,  or 
"  Irish  Eepublican  Brothers,"  in  their  native  land, 


240  THE   FENIAN  BROTHERHOOD. 

now  having  to  accept  such  drill  as  they  can  get 
with  rude  pikes,  in  the  absence  of  the  necessary 
muskets  and  bayonets.  Uncle  Sam,  however, 
will  soon  have  half  a  million  muskets  not  need 
ing  employment  at  home,  together  with  any  con 
ceivable  amount  of  superfluous  ordnance  and  ord 
nance  stores.  With  one-fourth  of  these  landed  on 
the  shores  of  Ireland — of  course,  in  case  of  Eng 
land's  refusing  to  pay  for  the  damages  inflicted  by 
her  privateers  on  American  commerce — not  a  year 
would  pass  before  the  delegates  of  an  Irish  Re 
public  would  be  knocking  at  the  doors  of  our 
National  Congress  for  the  admission  of  their  State 
as  the  van-ward  European  outpost  of  American 
liberty  and  popular  democratic  institutions  !  Let 
there  be  war  between  England  and  France,  and 
precisely  the  same  thing  will  happen— Ireland 
first  achieving  her  independence,  and  then  flying 
(where  her  heart  has  ever  been)  to  the  shelter  and 
sure,  strong  refuge  of  the  mighty  American  Com 
monwealth. 


THE  FENIAN"  BROTHERHOOD.  241 


NATIONAL  ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  "  I.  R.  B."  IN 
IRELAND — IT  IS  FLEXIBLE,  POWERFUL,  AND 
SPY-PROOF.  HOW  ITS  COLONELS  AND  OFFICERS 
ARE  APPOINTED. 

"  The  Green,  boys !  the  Green !  'tis  the  color  of  the  true , 
Oh,  we'll  back  it  'gainst  the  orange,  and  we'll  flout  it  o'er 

the  blue  ; 
For   the   color  of  our  fatherland  should  here  alone  be 

seen, 

The  color  carpeting  our  dead — our  own  immortal  Green ! 
Then  we'll  up  for   the   Green,   boys,  we'll  up  for  the 

Green — 

Oh,  'tis  down  in  the  dust  and  a  shame  to  be  seen ; 
But  we've   hearts,    and  we've  hands,  boys,  full  strong 

enough  I  ween, 
To  rescue  and  to  raise  again  our  own  immortal  Green !" 

The  Fenians  in  their  native  land  are  organized 
on  the  French  plan  of  secret  political  societies — a 
matter  to  which  Colonel  O'Mahony  gave  special 
and  very  useful  attention  during  his  years  of  resi 
dence  in  Paris;  and  which  he  some  years  ago 
transplanted  to  Ireland  in  one  of  his  secret  visits 
to  that  country,  wherein  he  was  long  ago  pro 
scribed  and  outlawed,  with  a  reward  placed  upon 
his  head.  This  system  we  shall  now  briefly  de 
scribe,  taking  care,  however,  while  we  seek  to 
interest  many  additional  thousands  of  born  Ame 
ricans  and  others  in  the  great  question  of  Irish 
Independence,  that  we  give  no  information  to  our 
11 


..        r.,,,: 


. 
•'•   >•  •  "    


\  ..•.-,•..-;..<          -,:       Vv. 


on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  to  the 
and  Central  Council  It  is  the  dirty 
Numerals,  each  in  his  own 
Monster,  and  so  forth — to  : 
such  prominent  and  reliable  men,  possessing  local 
influence  and  the  necessary  education,  as  they  may 
be  willing  to  approach  with  a  view  to  the  forma 
tion  of  the  coefare,  or  skeleton,  of  a  regiment. 
The  Numeral,  for  his  own  sake,  must  be  very 
cautious.  Re  then  inquires  the  general  views  of 
ntleman  he  may  think  of  ^?rM*?ng  to  be  his 
I  ve  shall  call  it — a  rank  equivalent  to 
coloneL  He  sounds  him  gently  as  to  his  willing- 

I  other  chance  and  risk  his  li: 
property  for  Ireland's  liberation ;  and  if  he  finds 
him  all  right  in  these  particulars,  and  a  man  de 
serving  confidence  so  hir  N'umerai  then 
broaches  his  busin- —  shows  the  in 
tended  "  A"  <o  much  of  his  credentials  as  i:;.- 

and  then  swears  in  and  commissions 

willing  and  properly  qualified, 

as  a  Colonel  of  the  Irish    Republican   Brother* 

Of  these  ootoarfr,     r      AV 
from  twenty  to  thirty  in.  each  province,  but  not 

v  know*: 

could   givv  j  r.       Back 

V    :  ;<   I,-  :     >.vora    in  separately,  and  only 
\  ,:aeral  wl  him  in.     He  does 

not  know  any  .10  other  thix 


244  THE   FENIAN  BROTHERHOOD. 

control  of  the  three  other  provinces ;  and  as  the 
oath  is  administered  in  secret  by  the  Numeral  to 
each  "  A,"  with  no  witnesses  present,  and  as  the 
commission  is  couched  in  language  of  no  legal 
significance,  and  is  only  signed  with  a  seal,  there 
can  be  produced  neither  oral  nor  written  evidence 
against  any  member  of  the  Provisional  Govern 
ment,  even  supposing  (as  has  never  yet  happened) 
that  some  "  A"  should  wish  to  prove  a  traitor,  or, 
as  they  say  in  Ireland,  "  to  sell  the  pass." 

HOW  THE  CAPTAINS  AND  SERGEANTS  ARE  AP 
POINTED — ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  MEN  AND 
THEIR  DRILL — THE  SYSTEM  SPY-PROOF. 

"  Deep  let  it  sink  in  Irish  hearts,  the  story  of  their  Isle, 
And  waken   thoughts   of  tenderest   love,  and   burning 

wrath  the  while  ; 
And  press  upon  them,  one  by  one,  the  fruits  of  English 

sway, 
And  blend  the  wrongs  of  bygone  times  with  this  our 

fight  to-day ; 
And  let  it  place  beside  our  own  the  world's  vast  page  to 

tell, 
There  never  lived  the  foreign  race  could  rule  a  nation 

well! 
Thus,  thus  our  cause  shall  gather  strength — no  feeling 

vague  and  blind, 
But  stamped  by  passion  on  the  heart,  by  reason  on  the 

mind. 
Let  this  go  forth — a  mightier  foe  to  England's  power 

than  all 


THE  FENIAN  BROTHERHOOD.  245 

The  rifles  of  America — the  armaments  of  Gaul ! 

It  shall  go  forth,  and  woe  to  them  who  strive  to  check 

its  speed ; 
'Tis  God's   own  light — all  heavenly  bright — it  is  the 

Fenian's  Creed  I " 

Each  "A,"  or  colonel,  thus  appointed,  next 
proceeds  with  equal  caution  and  at  equal  personal 
risk  to  select  nine  subordinates,  whom  we  will 
style  "  B's,"  holding  the  rank  of  captain.  These 
are  selected  from  men  of  his  most  intimate  ac 
quaintance,  whom  he  can  trust  with  his  life. 
They  are  sounded,  examined,  and  thoroughly 
tested  before  the  direct  project  is  opened  to  them. 
They  are  then  sworn  in  separately  as  "  Soldiers 
of  the  Irish  Eepublic" — there  being  no  one  pre 
sent  at  the  time  of  such  swearing  in  but  the  "  A" 
(colonel)  and  the  "B"  or  captain  ;  nor  are  any  of 
the  nine  "  B's"  ever  brought  together  in  official 
contact,  so  that  they  could  swear  against  each 
other  if  traitorously  inclined.  Each  "B"  only 
corresponds  with,  or  officially  knows,  his  colonel ; 
so  that  two  "  B's"  might  be  next-door  neighbors 
for  ten  years  without  either  one  suspecting  the 
other's  sentiments  or  affiliations.  Each  "  B"  or 
captain  thus  indoctrinated,  has  to  select,  sound, 
and  swear  in  nine  "  C's,"  or  sergeants,  in  like  man 
ner  and  at  equal  risk  of  his  own  liberty  and  pro 
perty — these  "C's,"  or  sergeants,  being  the  lowest 
officers  of  the  Order ;  and  each  "  C"  has  again  to 


246  THE   FENIAN  BROTHERHOOD. 

select  and  swear  in  from  among  the  neighbors  he 
most  intimately  knows  and  trusts,  nine  "  D's"  or 
private  soldiers,  who  are  to  form  his  squad. 
These  "D's"  are  sworn  in  separately  as  in  the 
previous  cases,  and  therefore  can  bring  forward 
no  proof,  if  traitorously  inclined,  of  the  sergeant's 
having  administered  to  them  an  illegal  oath — 
which  is  said  to  be  a  high  crime,  amounting  to 
felony  under  the  "  White  Boy,"  "  Croppy,"  "  Cap 
tain  Rock,"  and  other  Irish  coercion-bills  passed 
by  the  British  Parliament.  It  is  true  the  "  D's" 
have  to  be  brought  together  four  times  a  month  at 
least  for  drill,  and  can  therefore  swear  to  each 
other  as  having  been  drilled  together  by  a  certain 
man.  This,  however,  compared  with  the  adminis 
tration  of  an  illegal  oath,  is  a  venial  offence ;  nor 
does  England  like  to  acknowledge  that  ten  poor 
peasants  coming  together  and  drilling  with  long 
poles,  or  pike-staves,  can  fright  her  chalky  isle 
from  its  propriety.  Innumerable  are  the  efforts 
her  agents  and  spies  have  made  during  the  past 
four  years  to  pierce  into  the  arcana  of  this  secret 
and  dangerous  Order,  but  as  yet  wholly  without 
success.  Some  few  traitorous  "D's"  have  been 
found,  and  a  few  "  C's"  or  sergeants  transported  ; 
but  the  treachery  has  never  spread  further.  Two 
"  C's"  in  two  different  provinces  turned  traitors 
and  attempted  to  convict  their  "  D's"  or  captains ; 
but  the  prosecution  broke  down  in  both  cases  so 


THE   FENIAN  BROTHERHOOD.  247 

badly  that  nolle  prosequis  were  entered  by  the 
Crown  before  either  case  went  to  the  jury.  No 
instance  of  a  traitorous  "  B"  or  "A"  has  yet  been 
discovered  ;  nor  if  any  traitor  should  lurk  among 
them,  could  he  produce  any  evidence  against  his 
next  higher  in  authority,  by  whom,  in  secret,  he 
was  sworn  in  with  no  witnesses  present,  and  with 
whom  alone  he  holds  official  communication. 
This  is  the  "  hard  nut"  which  English  lawyers  and 
the  English  Parliament  have  now  to  crack — every 
Irish  paper  bringing  us  new  accounts  of  abortive 
trials  in  Ireland  on  the  charge  of  Fenianism ;  and 
no  debate  in  Parliament  being  complete  without  a 
demand  from  ex-Crown  Solicitor  Whiting  to  be 
informed  by  the  "  Honorable  Minister  for  Foreign 
Affairs,  what  steps  have  been  taken  by  her  Majesty's 
government  to  bring  the  American  government  to 
a  sense  of  its  just  responsibility  for  harboring  the 
dangerous  organizers  in  America  of  the  vile  and 
blood-thirsty  Fenian  conspiracy,  which  is  now 
rampant  in  Ireland,  for  the  overthrow  of  our 
beloved  Constitution,  and  all  the  rights  and  safe 
guards  of  property  and  religion."* 

*  Pretty  cool,  this— isn't  it  ?  for  the  fitters-out  of  the  Ala- 
bamas,  Floridas,  and  other  ocean  scourges  of  our  recent  war  ? 
It  is  refreshing. 


248  THE   FENIAN  BROTHERHOOD. 


ORGANIZATION  AND  OBJECTS  OF  THE  FENIANS 
IN  CANADA — LET  THE  KANUCKS  LOOK  OUT,  OR 
"  THEY  WILL  ALL  WAKE  UP  SOME  FINE  MORN 
ING  AND  FIND  THEMSELVES  DEAD  MEN." 

"  Hurrah !  hurrah  !  it  can't  be  far,  when  from  the  Boyne 

to  Shannon, 
Shall  flash  a  line  of  freemen's  flags  begirt  by  freemen's 

cannon ; 
That  coming  noon  of  freedom !  those  flashing  flags  of 

freedom ! 
The   victor's  glaive — the    mottoes   brave — may  we  be 

there  to  read  'em  1 
That  glorious  noon!     God  send  it  soon.     Hurrah  for 

human  freedom." 

Upon  the  organization  and  objects  of  the 
Fenians  in  the  Canadas  and  other  British  posses 
sions  it  is  not  our  present  purpose  to  enter.  That, 
wherever  they  may  be,  they  are  no  lovers  or 
admirers  of  the  Eed  Cross  of  St.  George  is 
very  certain.  If  the  United  States,  for  example, 
should  desire  to  seize  the  Canadas  as  a  material 
guarantee  for  England's  making  satisfaction  in 
money  for  the  injuries  inflicted  on  our  commerce 
by  Anglo-rebel  pirates,  it  is  not  immediately  pro 
bable  that  the  Fenians  in  the  Blue -Nose  Land 
would  offer  any  very  violent  or  decided  resistance 
to  annexation.  Every  blow  against  England  is  a 
balm  to  the  true  Irish  nature.  Every  humbling 
of  the  "  red  flag,"  everywhere  and  anywhere,  is  an 


THE  FENIAN  BROTHERHOOD.  249 

act  of  long-delayed  retribution  to  "  our  own  im 
mortal  green."  Let  there  be  a  war  between  the 
United  States  and  England,  and  not  a  dollar  in 
bounty  would  be  required  to  enlist  from  seventy- 
five  to  one  hundred  thousand  able-bodied  and 
pugnacious  Irishmen  throughout  the  States  in  that 
holy  strife.  With  all  veritable  Milesian  natures, 
hatred  of  the  British  government  is  a  part  of  their 
religion.  Against  the  foreign  usurpation  which 
crushes,  depopulates,  and  plunders  their  country, 
having  long  since  disfranchised  it,  their  hatred  is 
as  immortal  as  the  mountains  of  their  rock-bound 
island — as  deep  and  wild  as  are  the  waves  which 
lash  the  volcanic  crags  of  Donegal  and  Antrim. 
Show  a  true  Irishman  the  red  flag  or  a  red-coat, 
and  you  show  him  his  native  enemy  and  the  sym 
bol  of  that  bloody  rule  which  has  either  driven 
his  race  into  unpitied  exile  or  kept  them  slaves  at 
home.  There  are  massacres  of  six  hundred  years 
to  be  avenged ;  confiscations  of  James,  Elizabeth, 
and  Cromwell  to  be  reversed;  a  tyrant  church, 
hostile  and  foreign  to  the  people,  though  fattening 
on  their  substance,  to  be  blotted  out;  rights  of 
the  honest  laboring  tenant  against  the  libidinous 
and  cruel  foreign  landholder  to  be  established  ; 
massacres  by  starvation  in  recent  years  to  be 
avenged ;  penal  codes  and  treason-felony  bills, 
and  hundreds — yes,  literally  hundreds — of  fierce 
coercion-acts  to  be  erased  from  the  books  of  Ire- 
11* 


250  THE   FENIAN  BROTHERHOOD. 

land's  renovated  courts.  There  are  tombs  to  be 
built  to  the  martyred  dead,  and  many  graves  to  be 
filled  on  both  sides  before  this  can  be  done.  Of  a 
truth  our  fellow-citizens  of  Milesian  birth  or 
blood  are  not  loyal  in  any  sense  that  could  give 
delight  to  the  soul  of  ex-Crown  Solicitor  Whiting, 
or  any  of  his  breed.  They  did  not  turn  out  in 
honor  of  that  serenest  youth,  the  Baron  Renfrew, 
alias  Prince  of  Wales ;  nor  are  we  at  all  clear 
that  they  sing  or  recite  with  any  cordial  spirit  of 
unanimity  u  Croppies,  lie  Down,"  "  The  Boyne 
Water,"  the  "Maiden  City,"  or  "  The  Health  of 
our  great  and  good  King  William,"  on  the  appro 
priate  anniversaries  of  these  "  orange  and  purple" 
paeans.  They  are  indeed  a  stiff-necked  generation, 
and  the  sooner  President  Andrew  Johnson  goes 
to  work  and  crushes  them  out,  and  kills  them  off, 
and  utterly  exterminates  them,  the  better  and 
happier  will  it  be  for  our  dear  trans- Atlantic 
cousins,  who  equipped  rebel  corsairs  against  our 
commerce,  and  armed  rebel  armies  against  our 
lives ;  and  also  for  those  sweet,  pleasant  neighbors 
of  ours — the  Canadians — who  have  refused  to 
surrender  the  St.  Alban's  cut-throats  and  burglars, 
and  who  have  made  their  whole  frontier  for  the 
past  four  years  a  Northern  base  of  operations  for 
our  Southern  foes.  By  all  means  let  President 
Johnson  take  steps  to  crush  out  the  Fenians  at 
once ;  and  let  all  loyal,  British-loving  Ameri- 


THE  FENIAN  BROTHERHOOD.  251 

cans  take  part  with  him  in  so  doing  in  a  hurry. 
Thus  endeth  the  HeralcTs  first  epistle  on  the 
Fenian  Brotherhood !  * 

*  This  article,  copied  in  full  in  the  London  Times,  was  repro 
duced  in  nearly  all  the  anti-British  European  papers,  and  created 
an  immense  sensation.  At  first  the  Times  tried  hard  to  laugh  it 
down  as  "another  of  Miles  O'Reilly's  jokes  ;"  but  its  truth  has 
since  been  painfully  confirmed  to  the  British  Government ;  and 
yet  fuller  and  more  painful  confirmation  lies  in  the  immediate 
future. 


GETTYSBURG,  JULY  4,  1865. 

THOUGHTS   OF  THE  PLACE  AND  TIME. 

A  Poem  delivered  ly  the  writer  on  the  occasion  of  dedicating 
a  Monument  to  the  three  thousand  five  hundred  Union  Dead 
of  that  lattle. 

As  men  beneath  some  pang  of  grief 

Or  sudden  joy  will  dumbly  stand, 
Finding  no  words  to  give  relief — 
Clear,  passion-warm,  complete,  and  brief, 

To  thoughts  with  which  their  souls  expand  ; 
So  here  to-day — these  trophies  nigh — 

No  fitting  words  the  lips  can  reach ; 
These  circling  hills,  the  graves,  the  sky — 
The  silent  poem  of  the  eye 

Surpasses  all  the  art  of  speech  I 

To-day,  a  Nation  meets  to  build 

A  Nation's  trophy  to  the  dead, 
Who,  living,  formed  her  sword  and  shield — 
The  arms  she  sadly  learned  to  wield 

When  other  hope  of  peace  had  fled. 
And  not  alone  for  these  who  lie 

In  honored  graves  before  us  blent, 
Shall  our  winged  column,  proud  and  high, 
Soar  upward  to  the  blessing  sky, 

But  be  for  all  a  monument 


GETTYSBURG,   JULY  4,   1865.  253 

An  emblem  of  our  grief,  as  well 

For  others  as  for  these,  we  raise ; 
For  these  beneath  our  feet  who  dwell, 
And  all  who  in  the  good  cause  fell 

On  other  fields,  in  other  frays. 
To  all  the  self-same  love  we  bear 

Which  here  for  marbled  memory  strives  ; 
No  soldier  for  a  wreath  would  care 
Which  all  true  comrades  might  not  share — 

Brothers  in  death  as  in  their  lives. 


On  Southern  hillsides,  parched  and  brown, 

In  tangled  swamp,  on  verdant  ridge, 
Where  pines  and  broadening  oaks  look  down, 
And  jasmine  weaves  her  yellow  crown, 

And  trumpet-creepers  clothe  the  hedge 
Along  the  shores  of  endless  sand, 

Beneath  the  palms  of  Southern  plains, 
Sleep  everywhere,  hand  locked  in  hand, 
The  brothers  of  the  gallant  band 

Who  here  poured  life  through  throbbing  veins. 


Around  the  closing  eyes  of  all 

The  same  red  glories  glared  and  flew — 
The  hurrying  flags,  the  bugle  call, 
The  whistle  of  the  angry  ball, 

The  elbow-touch  of  comrades  true  ! 
The  skirmish-fire — a  spattering  spray ; 

The  rolling  growl  of  fire  by  file, 
The  thickening  fury  of  the  fray 
When  opening  batteries  get  in  play, 

And  the  lines  form  o'er  many  a  mile. 


254  GETTYSBURG,   JULY  4,    1865. 

The  foeman's  yell,  our  answering  cheer, 

Red  flashes  through  the  gathering  smoke, 
Blithe  cries  from  comrades  tried  and  dear, 
Swift  orders,  resonant  and  clear, 

The  shell-scream  and  the  sabre-stroke ; 
The  rolling  fire  from  left  to  right, 

From  right  to  left,  we  hear  it  swell  ; 
The  varying  charges,  swift  and  bright, 
The  thickening  tumults  of  the  fight 

And  bursting  thunders  of  the  shell. 

Now  deadlier,  denser  grows  the  strife, 

And  here  we  yield,  and  there  we  gain  j 
The  air  with  hurtling  missiles  rife, 
Volley  for  volley— life  for  life- 
No  tune  to  heed  the  cries  of  pain ! 
Panting  as  up  the  hills  we  charge, 

Or  down  them  as  we  broken  roll, 
Life  never  felt  so  high,  so  large, 
And  never  o'er  so  wide  a  marge 
In  triumph  swept  the  kindling  soul ! 

New  raptures  waken  in  the  breast 

Amid  this  hell  of  scene  and  sound : 
The  barking  batteries  never  rest, 
And  broken  foot,  by  horsemen  pressed, 

Still  stubbornly  contest  their  ground  ; 
Fresh  waves  of  battle,  rolling  in 

To  take  the  place  of  shattered  wave-s  ; 
Torn  lines  that  grow  more  bent  and  thin, 
A  blinding  cloud,  a  maddening  din — 

'Twas  thus  were  filled  these  very  graves ! 


GETTYSBTJKG,   JULY  4,   1865.  255 

Night  falls  at  length  with  pitying  veil, 

A  moonlit  silence  deep  and  fresh  ; 
These  upturned  faces,  stained  and  pale, 
Vainly  the  chill  night  dews  assail, 

For  colder  than  the  dews  their  flesh  ! 
And  flickering  far  through  brush  and  wood 

Go  searching-parties,  torch  in  hand — 
"  Seize,  if  you  can,  some  rest  and  food, 
At  dawn  the  fight  will  be  renewed, 

Sleep  on  your  arms  !  "  the  hushed  command. 

They  talk  in  whispers  as  they  lie 

In  line — these  rough  and  weary  men  ; 
" Dead  or  but  wounded?  "  then  a  sigh ; 
"  No  coffee  either  !  "  "  Guess  we'll  try 

To  get  those  two  guns  back  again." 
"  We've  five  flags  to  their  one  !  oho !  " 

"  That  bridge— 'twas  hot  there  as  we  passed  1 " 
"  The  colonel  dead !     It  can't  be  so  ; 
Wounded  and  badly — that  I  know ; 

But  he  kept  saddle  to  the  last." 

"  Be  sure  to  send  it  if  I  fall— " 

"  Any  tobacco  ?    Bill,  have  you  ?  " 
"A  brown-haired,  blue-eyed,  laughing  doll — " 
"  Good-night,  boys,  and  God  keep  you  all!  " 

"  What !  sound  asleep  ?    Guess  I'll  sleep  too." 
"  Aye !  just  about  this  hour  they  pray 

For  Dad — ."     "  Stop  talking !  pass  the  word  I  " 
And  soon  as  quiet  as  the  clay 
Which  thousands  will  but  be  next  day 

The  long-drawn  sighs  of  sleep  are  heard. 


256  GETTYSBURG,   JULY  4,    1865. 

Oh,  men !  to  whom  this  sketch,  though  rude, 

Calls  back  old  scenes  of  pain  and  pride  : 
Oh,  widow  !  hugging  close  your  brood, 
Oh,  wife !  with  happiness  renewed, 

Since  he  again  is  at  your  side  ; 
This  trophy  that  to-day  we  raise 

Should  be  a  monument  for  all, 
And  on  its  base  no  niggard  phrase 
Confine  a  generous  Nation's  praise 

To  those  who  here  have  chanced  to  fall. 


But  let  us  all  to-day  combine 

Still  other  monuments  to  raise ; 
Here  for  the  Dead  we  build  a  shrine  ; 
And  now  to  those  who,  crippled,  pine, 

Let  us  give  hope  of  happier  days  ! 
Let  homes  for  our  maimed  wrecks  of  war 

Through  all  the  land  with  speed  arise  ; 
Tongues  cry  from  every  gaping  scar, 
"  Let  not  our  brother's  tomb  debar 

The  wounded  living  from  your  eyes." 


A  noble  day,  a  deed  as  good, 

A  noble  scene  in  which  'tis  done, 
The  Birthday  of  our  Nationhood ; 
And  here  again  the  Nation  stood 

On  this  same  day — its  life  rewon ! 
A  bloom  of  banners  in  the  air, 

A  double  calm  of  sky  and  soul ; 
Triumphal  chant  and  bugle  blare, 
And  green  fields,  spreading  bright  and  fair, 

As  heavenward  our  Hosannas  roll. 


GETTYSBURG    JULY  4,    1865.  257 

Hosannas  for  a  land  redeemed, 

The  bayonet  sheathed,  the  cannon  dumb  ; 
Passed,  as  some  horror  we  have  dreamed, 
The  fiery  meteors  that  here  streamed, 

Threatening  within  our  homes  to  come  1 
Again  our  banner  floats  abroad, 

Gone  the  one  stain  that  on  it  fell  — 
And,  bettered  by  His  chastening  rod, 
With  streaming  eyes  uplift  to  God 

We  say  —  "HE  DOETH  ALL  THINGS  WELL." 


y/Hvt^ 


A  PICTURE  OF  LOBBY  LIFE. 

THE  BROADWAY   AND   CROSS-TOWN  RAILROADS. 
[Correspondence  of  the  tf.  T.  Tribune,  March  27,  1865.] 

ALBANY,  March  23,  1865. 
"  BIG  THINGS  AROUND — HUSH  !    HUSH  !" 

SPEECH  is  silver,  but  silence  is  golden,  says  an 
old  German  proverb,  which  appears  to  have  been 
adopted  as  their  rule  of  action  by  the  vast  swarm 
of  experienced  and  eager  Lobbyists  who  are  now 
here  attempting  to  push  through  those  two  great 
est  swindles  of  the  day — the  Broadway  and  Cross- 
town  Railroads.  For  the  reporters  of  our  various 
papers  who  are  stationed  here  on  duty  to  come 
out  openly  in  favor  of  these  measures,  might  lead 
to  inquiries  and  involve  said  reporters  in  trouble 
with  their  respective  editors — the  editors,  very 
likely,  not  being  able  to  "  see  things  in  that  parti 
cular  light."  A  judicious  silence,  therefore,  is  the 
best  aid  the  Lobby  can  hope  for  ;  and  for  the  last 
few  weeks  the  universal  whisper  of  "  Hush ! 
hush!"  has  only  been  interrupted  by,  or  rather 
mingled  with,  the  crisp  rustle  of  passing  green 
backs.  "Oh  breathe  not  their  names,  let  them 
sleep  in  the  shade,"  have  been  the  words  of  com- 


BROADWAY  AND  CROSS-TOWN  RAILROADS.    259 

mand  from  Major-General  Jake  Sharp's  City -rail 
road  Headquarters  at  the  Delevan  ;  and  for  evi 
dence  that  he  has  been  in  the  main  obeyed  with 
military  promptness  and  fidelity,  you  may  consult 
the  "  Albany  Letters"  of  the  past  three  weeks  in 
all  the  New  York  daily  and  weekly  journals — 
the  Tribune,  of  course,  excepted. 

THE  CURTAIN  GOING  UP — GRAND  PROGRAMME  OF 
PERFORMANCES. 

This  silence  your  correspondent,  to  his  own 
financial  prejudice  and  the  public  good,  now  pro 
poses  to  break  in  a  very  decided  manner — pulling 
up  the  curtain  before  the  actors  are  all  fully  posed 
in  their  parts,  and  showing  the  whole  details  of 
pulleys,  wires,  trap-doors,  dissolving  views,  and 
other  machinery,  which  are  already  prepared  for 
the  Senatorial  production  upon  next  Tuesday, 
"  with  all  the  modern  improvements,"  of  the 
great  Broadway  and  Cross-town  dramas.  The 
entire  strength  of  both  the  Broadway  and  Cross- 
town  companies  will  be  exhibited  in  this  letter — 
each  actor  being  assigned  to  a  part  in  which  expe 
rience  has  made  him  perfect,  and  the  whole  being 
under  the  direct  stage-management  of  that  veteran 
supervisor  of  such  arrangements  who  is  known  in 
the  circles  of  the  initiated  as  the  "  Old  Man,"  but 
otherwise  and  more  properly  our  "  Lord  Thurlow 


260    BROADWAY  AND  CROSS-TOWN  RAILROADS. 

Weed."  There  will  be  the  "  clear-grit  Broadwe- 
gian  and  Cross-town  Senators  "  coming  up  smiling 
for  the  first  round,  with  Messrs.  Law,  Sharp,  Kerr, 
Brennan,  Develin,  and  Sweeney  acting  as  their 
bottle-holders  in  a  corner  of  "the  ring;"  while  a 
delegation  of  "  Central  Railroad  Senators "  will 
also  appear  to  assist  them,  these  latter  having  their 
heads  plastered  and  bandaged  in  all  directions, 
their  noses  swollen  to  an  unusual  size,  and  their 
eyes  in  mourning — proud  though  unhappy  me 
mentoes  of  their  recent  campaign  for  "  unlimited 
fares"  under  the  "  Old  Man's  "leadership."* 

PROPOSED  BROADWAY,  CROSS-TOWN,  AND  CENTRAL 
RAILROAD  COMBINATION. 

Next  Tuesday  is  the  day  set  apart  by  the  Senate 
for  the  final  consideration  of  the  Broadway  and 
Cross-town  measures — it  being  quite  likely,  how 
ever,  that  a  vote  of  further  postponement  may  be 
carried  on  that  day  by  a  junction  of  the  Broad 
way,  Cross-town,  and  Central  forces,  in  order  to 
give  the  engineers  of  each  concern  more  time  for 
arranging  the  particulars  of  a  bargain,  which, 
carrying  one  measure,  is  to  carry  all  three — the 

*  The  Central  Railroad  had  just  been  beaten,  very  unexpect 
edly,  in  an  attempt  to  have  the  clause  of  its  charter  restricting 
its  fares  to  not  more  than  two  cents  per  mile  abolished,  so  that 
it  might  charge  what  it  pleased  thereafter. 


BROADWAY  AND   CROSS-TOWN   RAILROADS.    261 

thirteen  "  clear  grit "  Broadway  and  Cross-town 
Senators  being  willing  to  go  solid  for  the  increase 
of  fare  on  the  Central  Eailroad,  if  the  "  Central 
fellows"  can  and  will  reciprocate  the  obligation  by 
giving  them  enough  votes  to  carry  through  their 
pet  iniquities.  The  plot,  you  see,  is  a  mighty 
pretty  one  if  it  will  only  work ;  but  that  it  can't 
be  made  work,  and  certainly  "  won't  wash,"  is  the 
opinion  of  the  longest  and  oldest  heads  in  this 
vicinity — Dean  Eichmond  being  opposed  to  any 
such  coalition,  and  swearing  that,  even  if  success 
ful  this  year,  it  would  raise  such  a  storm  next 
year  against  the  "  Central "  that  the  very  charter 
of  the  Company  would  be  in  danger.  Behind  all 
these  petty  intriguers,  too,  stands  the  shadowy 
figure  of  Governor  Fenton,  "  grand,  gloomy,  and 
peculiar  " — a  mantle  of  mysterious  silence  wrap 
ped  around  his  thoughts,  in  his  eyes  a  curious 
twinkle  of  amusement  and  curiosity,  and  in  his 
red  right  hand  a  concealed  weapon,  which  Jake 
Sharp  now  declares,  with  many  epithets,  he 
u  believes  to  be  a  veto." 


262    BROADWAY  AND   CKOSS-TOWN  RAILROADS. 


HOW     THE     PREY     IS     PORTIONED     OUT — "  THE 


"  One  robber  had  his  rights — the  lights, 
Bile-duck  and  spleen  to  chew  o'  nights." 

And  now  first  to  talk  of  the  forces,  resources, 
grantees,  and  Lobby-agents  of  the  Broadway  pro 
ject.  The  proposed  grant — never  mind  the 
names  printed  in  it — is  divided  as  follows :  For 
George  Law,  because  he  has  power  to  enforce  his 
claim,  two-twelfths ;  for  Matthew  T.  Brennan  and 
Peter  B.  Sweeney,  on  behalf  of  the  corrupt 
Democracy,  three-twelfths ;  for  Jacob  Sharp  and 
John  Kerr,  in  consideration  of  their  advancing 
the  sinews  of  war,  three-twelfths ;  for  the  Weed 
interest,  as  the  natural  political  owners  of  the 
Legislature,  three-twelfths;  and  three- twelfths  to 
be  held  in  reserve  for  the  coalition  of  which  Sena 
tor  Demas  Strong  is  the  representative — Senator 
Strong  being  the  present  Treasurer  of  the  Belt 
City  Kailroad,  for  the  passage  of  which  he 
"worked  hard  and  did  good  service;"  and  this 
Belt-road  being  the  chief  power  and  interest  now 
pressing  the  passage  of  the  Cross-town  Railroad 
bill — a  bill  against  which,  therefore,  we  may  of 
course  expect  Senator  Strong  to  fight  with  every 
energy  of  his  nature !  This,  however,  is  antici 
pating  ;  and  now  let  us  return  to  our  Broadway 


BROADWAY  AND   CROSS-TOWN  RAILROADS.    263 

"muttons" — who  will  soon,  we  predict,  be  as 
dead  as  any  muttons  ever  sent  down  to  New 
York  over  the  Harlem  or  Erie  lines. 


SUPPLY  OF  THE  SINEWS  OF  WAR — GOLDEN  COR 
DIAL  FOR  LEGISLATORS,  AND  WATER  FOR  THE 
STOCK. 

Such  being  the  men  to  be  benefited  by  the  bill, 
we  find  that  the  "  sinews  of  war"  for  the  campaign 
have  been  furnished  by  the  Seventh  Avenue  or 
Parallel  Kailroad — this  being  the  line  which 
would  be  most  seriously  injured  by  the  laying 
down  of  a  rival  railroad  in  Broadway,  and  which, 
therefore,  wishes  to  protect  itself  by  obtaining  a 
share  of  the  grant.  Of  this  Seventh  Avenue 
line,  Jacob  Sharp  and  John  Kerr  are  now  the  two 
controlling  proprietors ;  and,  as  an  illustration  of 
what  these  kind  of  people  mean  when  they  com 
plain  that  a  six-cent  fare  does  not  pay  them  any 
return  upon  their  investment — we  may  briefly 
mention  as  follows :  The  Seventh  Avenue  Road 
runs  from  Fifty-seventh  street  to  the  Astor  House, 
a  distance  of  about  four  miles ;  and  its  probable 
total  cost  of  construction,  with  buildings,  live 
stock,  and  rolling-stock,  may  have  amounted,  at 
the  extreme  outside,  to  half  a  million  dollars.  It 
is,  nevertheless,  declared  to  have  a  capital  of 
$2,000,000,  with  a  bonded  debt  of  $1,400,000— 


264    BROADWAY  AND  CROSS-TOWN  RAILROADS. 

about  $200,000  of  this  debt  in  extra  bonds  having 
been  put  out  in  Wall  street  not  many  months  ago, 
and  the  proceeds  of  said  extra  bonds  being  now 
believed  to  be  up  here  in  Albany  and  employed 
in  furnishing  the  fuel  to  get  up  steam  for  the  pas 
sage  of  this  Broadway  measure — Mr.  Jake  Sharp 
in  person  being  the  grand  almoner  and  lord- 
bountiful  of  this  legislative  charity  ! 

THE     GRANTEES      AND     THEIR     DUMMIES — JACOB 
DOING  A  BIG  BUSINESS. 

"  These  dwellers  of  the  woods  and  fastnesses — 
These  plunderers  of  defenceless  villages ; 
These  shadowy  bandits,  of  whose  names  we  hear, 
'But  never  yet  within  the  striking  reach 
Of  honest  arm  have  they  had  heart  to  tarry." 

The  names  used  as  grantees  in  the  bill,  are,  of 
course,  of  no  account ;  or  of  little  more  account 
than  the  "  Peter  Griese  "  and  "  J.  Joseph  Don 
nelly  "  of  a  former  Broadway  scheme  ;  or  the 
"  John  EL  Doty  "  to  whom  your  City  Comptroller 
sold  for  $101  the  City  bonds  for  which  Mr. 
Andrew  Mills,  of  the  Dry  Dock  Savings  Bank,  had 
offered  him  $105.*  In  most  of  our  City  Eailroad 
grants,  the  names  of  the  grantees  cannot  even  be 
found  in  the  directory ;  but,  in  the  present  one, 

*  The  swindling  transaction  here  referred  to  has  since  been 
made  subject  of  charge  before  Governor  Fenton. 


BROADWAY  AND   CKOSS-TOWN  KAILROADS.    265 

the  two  last-named  of  these  unknown  gentlemen 
are  supposed  to  be  the  representatives  of  the 
"  Old  Man  ;"  while  Messrs.  Jacob  Sharp  and  John 
Kerr  have  each  placed  the  name  of  a  son-in-law 
in  the  proposed  measure.  Greorge  Law  has  used, 
to  protect  his  own  three-twelfths,  the  names  of  one 
gentleman  who  is  connected  with  his  bank,  and 
another  gentleman  who  is  the  brother-in-law  of 
his  lawyer ;  while  two  other  names  are  used  as 
the  representative  "  dummies  "  of  the  Brennan- 
Sweeney  interest.  "Live-Oak  George,"  by  the 
^way,  don't  want  the  bill  to  pass  at  all,  and  has 
not  been  up  here  this  year,  despite  all  efforts  to 
bring  him ;  but  he  feels  that  if  it  does  pass,  it 
would  never  do  for  him,  with  his  other  heavy 
City  Eailroad  interests,  to  be  "  out  in  the  cold." 
He  says  he  already  has  in  stock  of  this  kind  all 
the  money  that  he  can  beneficially  manage — 
owning  the  Eighth  and  Ninth  Avenue  Eailroads 
altogether,  and  some  small  shares  in  the  Sixth  and 
Seventh  Avenue  lines.  He  formerly  owned  a 
great  part  of  the  Avenue  D.  and  Fourteenth  street 
line ;  but  this  road — one  of  the  most  profitable  in 
the  city — has  since  been  sold  out  by  all  the  origi 
nal  grantees  to  their  associate,  Mr.  Jacob  Sharp, 
who  is  also  sole  proprietor  of  the  railroad  run 
ning  from  the  Dry  Bock,  foot  of  East  Eleventh 
street,  to  its  terminus  in  front  of  Barnum's  Mu 
seum — a  road  of  brief  route,  large  travel,  very 
12 


266    BROADWAY  AND   CROSS-TOWN   RAILROADS. 

light  expenses,  and  enormous  profits.  In  fact,  if 
George  Law  don't  look  out,  the  vigorous  Jacob 
will  soon  be  the  king  of  our  City  Kailroads. 
As  to  the  politicians,  they  only  seek  these  grants 
to  sell  them  again  for  whatever  they  will  fetch  ; 
but  Sharp  is  an  excellent  business  man,  and  in 
more  senses  than  one  "  a  man  of  unbounded  sto 
mach,"  who  is  quite  likely  to  absorb  all  weaker 
rivals. 

ROLL-CALL   OF  HONOR — NAMES  OF    THE  "  CLEAR- 
GRIT  BROADWEGIANS." 

; 

"  We  love  them,  we  tell  you,  we  love  them  a  heap  ; 
Like  fish  of  the  stalest  in  darkness  they  shine ; 
And  when  in  their  graves  they  lie  down  to  their  sleep, 
Above  them  the  stinkweed  shall  genially  twine." 

We  now  come  to  the  "clear-grit  Broadway 
Senators  " — the  men  who  have  proved  their  fide 
lity  to  this  particular  bill  in  many  a  desperate 
vote,  and  who  may  be  relied  upon,  with  perfect 
confidence,  to  go  straight  for  this  or  any  other 
similar  measure  in  which  "  their  friends "  shall 
have  been  properly  protected — by  "  friends " 
meaning  those  political  combinations  of  outside 
operators  who  have  been  the  carbuncle  ornaments 
and  jewels  of  our  State  Legislature  during  the 
last  half-score  of  years.  Of  these  there  are  thir 
teen  considered  "certain" — a  fourteenth,  proba 
bly  ;  but,  as  this  fourteenth  man  has  not  yet  gone 


BROADWAY  AND   CROSS-TOWN   RAILROADS.    267 

too  far  to  retract,  we  suppress  his  name  for  the 
present,  hoping  that  he  may,  even  at  the  eleventh 
hour, 

"  By  penance  done, 

With  bitter  fasts,  with  penitential  groans, 
With  nightly  tears  and  daily  heart-sore  sighs," 

prevent  the  necessity  of  our  placing  his  name 
before  the  public  in  the  same  roll-call  of  honor 
with  that  to  which  his  more  advanced  associates 
have  already  condemned  their  reputations.  These 
thirteen  "  clear-grit  Broadwegians  "  are  named  as 
follows:  Senators  Demas  Strong  and  Henry  C. 
Murphy  of  Kings  county  ;  Christian  B.  Wood 
ruff,  Thomas  C.  Fields,  and  Luke  F.  Cozans  of  New 
York ;  George  Beach  of  Greene  county ;  Orson 
M.  Allaben  of  Delaware ;  Palmer  E.  Havens  of 
Essex ;  Cheney  Ames  of  Oswego  ;  Frederick 
Julian  of  Chenango;  Stephen  K.  Williams  of 
Wayne;  Stephen  T.  Hayt  of  Steuben;  and 
Wilkes  Angell  of  Alleghany — this  last-named 
Senator  being  Chairman  of  the  Committee  having 
special  charge  of  reporting  these  Broadway,  Cross- 
town,  and  all  similar  measures. 


268    BROADWAY  AND   CROSS-TOWN   RAILROADS. 


ALLEGED  HERMAPHRODITE   SENATORS,   WHO    ARE 
NO   HERMAPHRODITES  AT  ALL. 

"  You'll  find  them  true  unto  the  death, 

Bold  comrades  in  the  strife ; 
I  know  the  men,  and  on  their  faith, 
I  stake  my  all — my  life  !  " 

Having  given  the  Senators  who  are  claimed  and 
pretty  well  known  to  be  "  certain  for  the  Broadway 
measure."  we  give  next  the  list  of  those  gentlemen 
who  are  insulted  by  the  confident  assertions  of 
the  Lobby  that  they  "can  be  fetched  whenever 
wanted,"  and  that  "  whenever  their  votes  can  pass 
the  Broadway  and  Cross-town  bills,"  such  votes  will 
be  forthcoming.  These  are  Ira  Shafer  of  Albany ; 
James  M.  Humphrey  of  Erie ;  and  Eobert  Chris 
tie  of  Kichmond,  Democrats ;  and  Ezra  Cornell 
of  Tompkins,  and  George  G.  Hunger  of  Monroe, 
Unionists.  It  is  even  added  that  an  attempt  is 
being  made  upon  the  political  virtue  of  the 
honored  Senator,  George  H.  Andrews  of  Otsego — • 
the  "  Old  Man,"  a  veteran  in  this  species  of  seduc 
tion,  having  been  "  horse-shedding  "  him  to  this 
end  ever  since  the  Broadway  iniquity  of  the  present 
session  was  conceived  in  sin  and  brought  forth 
under  the  obstetrics  of  iniquity.  Such  gentle 
men  as  these,  however — with  perhaps  one  possible 
exception — are  not  the  kind  of  men  to  "  contami- 


BROADWAY  AND   CROSS-TOWN  RAILROADS.    269 

nate  their  fingers  with  base  bribes,"  nor  will  they 
give  to  any  Lobby  agent,  in  their  case,  the  pride 
of  boasting — 

"  I  did  corrupt  frail  nature  with  some  bribe." 

Senator  Christie  has  said  publicly  that  "  no  man 
can  live  in  New  York  and  vote  for  the  Broadway 
railroad  :  it  taints  everything  it  touches  ;"  adding, 
that  although  he  is  "  what  is  called  a  Central 
Railroad  man,"  yet  he  cannot  afford  to  help  the 
Central  at  any  such  price  as  this.  It  is  the  same 
with  Senators  Hunger,  Humphrey,  and  Cornell — 
all  gentlemen  who  value  their  own  characters — 
Senator  Ira  Shafer  being  probably  the  only  one 
of  those  claimed  as  "  doubtful,"  whose  devotion 
to  the  Central  might  possibly  be  so  great  as  to 
carry  him  over  to  cast  a  Broadway  vote.  When 
ever  any  amount  of  "  horse-shedding"  shall  have 
drawn  Senators  Andrews,  Hunger,  Cornell,  and 
Christie  into  this  business,  then  their  friends  will 
confess  that  there  are  several  new  things  under 
the  sun. 


270    BROADWAY  AND   CROSS-TOWN   RAILROADS. 

HOBBS  HITS  THE  NAIL  ON  THE  HEAD  EVERY 
POP.  HE  TALKS  LIKE  A  BIRD — LIKE  TWO 
BIRDS. 

"  A  man  of  solid  argument, 

A  man  of  just  and  great  renown, 
Whose  logic  broadens  slowly  down 
From  precedent  to  precedent." 

The  matter  standing  thus  in  the  main  body  of 
the  Senate,  let  us  see  how  it  stands  in  the  Com 
mittee  having  more  especial  charge  of  tKe  matter, 
and  which  consists  of  Senators  Beach,  Williams, 
Woodruff,  Angel,  and  Hobbs.  Upon  last  year's 
Committee,  Senator  Angel,  although  Chairman, 
was  pushed  "out  into  the  cold,"  and  that  nice 
little  job,  "the  Harlem  Corner,"  went  through 
without  him.  This  year,  however,  he  has  fought 
his  way  in  again,  and  is  now  in  full  accord  and 
partnership  with  his  Broad wegian  brothers,  Beach, 
Williams,  and  Woodruff.  This  leaves  Senator 
Hobbs,  of  Franklin — a  very  upright  arid  able 
gentleman — alone  in  his  glory  to  fight  the  "  ring" 
— a  position  so  irksome  that  he  was  about  apply 
ing  to  be  relieved,  but  was  induced  to  remain, 
possibly  by  the  consideration  that — 

"  If  taken  away,  there  would  be  none  left 
To  rail  upon  them,  and  then  they  would  sin  the  faster," 

Hobbs,  therefore,  stays  in  the  Committee  and 
fights  his  corner  like  a  hero,  perfectly  regardless 


BROADWAY  AND  CROSS-TOWN  RAILROADS.    271 

of  cutting  against  the  grain  of  his  "  ring"  asso 
ciates,  and  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  pre 
siding  officer  of  the  Senate — Lieutenant-Governor 
William  Gr.  Alvord — is  one  of  the  heaviest 
stockholders  in  the  Belt  Eailroad,  which  he  so 
powerfully  helped  to  "  put  through'7  while  in  the 
Assembly.  Hobbs  pleads  that  his  associates  all 
went  against  the  Harlem-Broadway  bill  last  year, 
although  ten  times  a  fairer  measurer  in  its  provi 
sions  than  the  present  one,  so  far  as  regards  the 
public.  Also  that  any  such  grant  should  be  given 
to  a  regularly  constituted  corporation,  having  a 
certain  limited  capital  and  recognised  stockholders 
— men  who  would  be  responsible  legally;  and 
who  would  both  arrange  to  compensate  property- 
holders  along  the  line  for  injuries  done,  as  also  to 
withdraw  all  stages  from  the  route,  giving  to  the 
proprietors  of  these  vehicles  full  and  just  compen 
sation.  He  points  out  that  the  present  bill  does 
not  contain  one  single  provision  for  the  benefit  or 
protection  of  the  public,  being  another  mere  naked 
"  gridiron  grant"  to  a  body  of  irresponsible  indi 
viduals — not  one  of  whom  would  retain  any  inte 
rest  in  the  gift  ten  days  after  it  had  been  made  by 
the  Legislature.  Suppose  the  old  Broadway  Rail 
road  bill  had  passed,  and  a  person  wished  to  com 
mence  an  action  against  those  two  illustrious 
grantees — "  Peter  Griese"  and  "  J.  Joseph  Don 
nelly,"  for  damages !  It  is  practically  no  better 


272  BROADWAY  AND  CROSS-TOWN  RAILROADS. 

in  the  present  bill,  as  the  names  in  the  grant  will 
not  be  those  of  the  actual  proprietors.  If  the 
members  of  the  Legislature  desire  to  vote  Messrs. 
Law,  Brennan,  Sweeney,  Kerr,  Sharp,  and  the 
"  Old  Man,"  from  one  to  two  hundred  thousand 
dollars  each,  let  the  vote  be  a  clean  and  open  one, 
and  let  the  dotation  be  made  out  of  the  public 
treasury  ;  but  let  them  not  add  to  the  outrage  of 
such  a  gift  by  utterly  ruining  the  noblest  street  on 
the  American  Continent.  The  Seventh  Avenue 
road  has  "  watered  up"  its  stock  to  $2,000,000, 
with  a  bonded  debt  of  $1,400,000.  How  much 
u  water"  would  the  Broadway  stock  be  likely  to 
absorb,  if  granted  to  these  parties  ?  And  how  much 
would  be  its  bonded  debt  in  two  years  from  the 
end  of  this  session  ?  Individuals  can't  be  sued  in 
such  a  connexion  ;  corporations  can.  Individuals 
can  issue  as  much  stock  as  they  please ;  corpora 
tions  can  be  limited.  If  this  Broadway  iniquity 
is  to  go  through  at  all,  let  it  be  consigned  to  the 
care  of  a  corporation,  with  a  limited  capital,  and 
with  legal  responsibility  assured. 


BROADWAY  AND   CROSS-TOWN   RAILROADS.    273 


NEW  YORK,  WITH  TWELVE  STITCHES  IN  HER 
SIDE,  AND  HER  BACKBONE  TRAVERSED  BY  THE 
TERTIAN  AGUE. 

"  The  poor  old  woman  was  sick  and  sore, 

Plagued,  she  said,  by  those  wicked  witches ; 
Her  back  the  fell  lumbago  bore, 

And  her  sides  were  full  of  rheumatic  stitches." 

Thus — only  much  better — argues  Senator 
Hobbs ;  but  he  talks  to  ears  as  deaf  as  if  they 
were  already  stuffed  with  a  rustling  paper,  the 
color  of  which  we  need  not  specify  ;  and  all  of  his 
arguments  applying  to  the  Broadway  road,  are  of 
equal,  or  even  far  stronger,  applicability  to  the 
intended  "  Cross-town  Railroad."  This  latter 
project  has  for  its  pecuniary  backer  and  banker 
the  present  Belt  City  Eailroad,  of  which  Senator 
Strong  is  Treasurer,  and  Lieut. -Gov.  Alvord  one 
of  the  original  stockholders.  This  Cross-town 
scheme  should  really  be  called  the  Darning- 
Needle  Railroad,  being  intended  to  give  your 
city  a  "  stitch  in  the  side"  every  ten  blocks  or  so, 
as  follows  :  It  is  to  run  across  Broadway  from  the 
foot  of  Courtlandt  street,  North  Eiver,  to  the  foot 
of  Maiden  Lane,  East  River ;  then  back  again, 
across  Broadway,  from  the  East  River  to  the  North, 
via  John  street.  It  is  to  perform  the  same  feat, 
charging  across  the  city  through  Chambers  street, 
arid  returning  to  the  North  River,  vid  Duane. 
12* 


274   BROADWAY  AND   CROSS-TOWN   RAILROADS. 

Another  stitch  is  to  be  given  you  at  Ninth  street, 
with  a  returning  raid  through  Tenth  street  and 
Christopher.  Ditto,  repeated  from  the  Hudson  to 
the  East  Eiver,  through  Twenty-Sixth  street,  with 
a  reentering  darn  from  the  East  Kiver  to  the  Hud 
son,  through  Twenty-Seventh  street.  There  are 
two  other  sets  of  darns  higher  up  the  island,  the 
exact  localities  of  which  I  have  forgotten — the 
whole  project,  let  me  add,  being  literally  "  one  of 
the  darn'dest"  that  has  ever  yet  been  broached. 
The  Broadway  swindle  is  to  run  right  down  the 
backbone  of  your  island,  like  a  fit  of  the  tertian 
ague ;  while  this  Cross-town  abomination  is  to 
keep  giving  you  a  punch  in  the  ribs  every  ten 
blocks  you  walk. 

CHIEF  OPERATORS  OF  THE  CROSS-TOWN  RAIL 
ROAD — ENTER  MESSRS.  PURSER  AND  CONOVER 
WITH  TWO  FLIP-FLAPS. 

As  to  the  personnel  of  this  Cross-town  affair,  it 
is  very  numerous  and  greatly  mixed  up,  being 
considered  by  many  even  a  "  bigger  thing"  than 
Broadway  itself;  for  the  fare  is  to  be  the  same  as 
on  all  other  roads,  while  the  distance  traversed 
will  rarely  much  exceed  one  mile.  We  therefore 
find  in  it  the  Belt  Railroad  people,  who  supply  it 
with  money  just  as  the  Seventh  Avenue  line  sup 
plies  the  Broadway  project ;  and,  as  grand  hidal- 


BROADWAY  AND  CROSS-TOWN  RAILROADS.    275 

gos  of  the  Belt,  we  have  Senator  Strong,  Lieut. - 
Gov.  Alvord  and  John  Butler.  Also  the  "  Sixth 
Ward  family,"  including  "  Peter  Griese ;"  and  the 
"  Old  Man's  family,"  including  your  Corporation 
Counsel.  Whether  Kerr  and  Sharp  are  in  it,  is 
not  known  to  your  correspondent ;  but  we  have 
here  to  add  to  our  original  stock  of  actors  in  the 
Broadway  scheme  an  entirely  new  and  very  inter 
esting  body  of  performers  who  are  known  as  the 
"Tax  Office  family,"  headed  by  Messrs.  George 
H.  Purser,  Tax  Commissioner,  Assistant  Corpora 
tion  Counsel,  etc. ;  Dan  Conover  and  Company — • 
Mr.  Conover  also  carrying  in  his  pocket  the  bill 
organizing  the  "  Manhattan  Land  Company," 
otherwise  known  as  "  the  Great  Dirt  Bill" — a  bill 
very  much  of  the  original  Fort-Gansevoort  pat 
tern  ;  but  so  vast  that  its  prototype  beside  it  would 
be  but  a  wart  beside  Ossa — thus  borrowing,  and, 
we  fear,  rather  injuring,  one  of  Shakspeare's 
most  passionate  metaphors. 


276    BROADWAY  AND  CROSS-TOWN  RAILROADS. 


QUOTATION    OF    ONE     STANZA — COULDN'T    STAND 
ANOTHER — FROM  OUR   "  CRAZY  POET." 

On  next  Tuesday  these  Broadway  and  Cross- 
town  monsters  are  to  come  up  for  judgment,  being 
made  the  special  order  of  the  day ;  and,  as  they 
have  been  hideous  in  their  lives — an  idea  some 
where  used  by  another  writer — in  their  deaths  let 
us  hope  they  will  not  be  divided.  They  are  the 
Siamese  twins  of  the  Lobby,  and  either  both  must 
live  or  both  perish.  There  are  some  verses  up 
here  written  by  our  "  Crazy  Poet" — the  man,  you 
know,  wearing  peacock's  feathers  in  his  hat  and 
having  his  breast  all  covered  with  old  coins  and 
gimcracks,  who  stands  on  the  steps  of  the  capitol 
each  day  scrutinizing  the  faces  of  the  members  as 
they  pass  in  or  out.  They  are  addressed  "  To  the 
Most  Honorable  the  Honest  Senators  of  New 
York,"  and  have  evidently  reference  to  the  bring 
ing  up  of  the  Broadway  and  Cross-town  Eailroad 
bills  next  Tuesday.  They  commence : 

"  When  comes  the  day  all  hearts  to  weigh 

If  true  they  be,  or  vile, 
Will  ye  forget  the  sacred  debt 

Ye  owe  Manhattan  Isle  ? 
Shall  *  healthy  beats'  through  all  her  streets 

Their  swindling  railroads  hustle, 
WThile  in  your  fobs,  made  rich  by  jobs, 

The  bribing  greenbacks  rustle  ?  " 


BROADWAY  AND  CROSS-TOWN   RAILROADS.    277 

GENERAL  GAME  OF  EAR-WIGGING  ALL  ROUND — 
EVERY  HORSE  SHED  CROWDED,  AND  BUTTON 
HOLES  AT  A  PREMIUM. 

This  specimen  must  content  you,  as  I  have  not 
time  to  copy  the  balance ;  and,  besides,  I  do  not 
think  our  "  Crazy  Poet "  correct  in  believing  that 
next  Tuesday  will  be  the  final  day.  The  "  clear- 
grit  "  Broad wegians,  as  I  said  before,  need  a  little 
delay,  as  they  are  trying  to  patch  up  a  treaty  of 
alliance,  offensive  and  defensive,  with  the  badly- 
beaten  Central  fellows — the  Broadwegians  offering 
to  vote  for  giving  the  Central  two  and  a  half  cents 
per  mile,  in  return  for  the  support  of  the  follow 
ing  four  gentlemen,  which,  if  secured,  would 
carry  the  Broadway  and  Cross-town  bills — they 
being  thirteen  themselves,  and  the  total  number 
of  the  Senate  thirty-two.  They  expect  by  this 
proffered  bribe  to  get  the  votes  of  Senator  An 
drew  D.  White  of  Onondaga  (Unionist),  and  Ira 
Shafer,  Eobert  Christie,  and  James  M.  Humphrey 
of  Erie  (Democrats) ;  but  we  tell  them  the  thing 
can't  be  done  at  that,  or  any  other  price.  It  is 
quite  probable,  however,  that  these  last-named 
gentlemen  may  join  in  voting  for  a  postponement 
of  the  Broadway  and  Cross-town  bills  next  Tues 
day,  in  order  to  give  time  for  further  negotiation, 
and  to  see  what  may  or  may  not  be  brought  about 
by  the  permanent  game  of  poker  going  on  in 


278    BROADWAY  AND  CROSS-TOWN  RAILROADS. 

Jake  Sharp's  parlor  at  the  Delevan — a  very  potent 
Lobby  agency  ;  together  with  the  various  "  horse- 
shedding"  operations  which  everybody  in  the 
interest  of  every  scheme  is  now  trying  upon 
every  one  else  who  is  not. 

"  Oh,  I  have  seen  corruption  boil  and  bubble 
'Till  it  o'erran  the  stews.     Laws  for  all  faults ; 
But  faults  so  countenanced  that  the  strong  statutes 
Stand  like  the  forfeits  in  a  barber's  shop — 
Things  more  in  mock  than  mark  1  " 

That  we  have  laws  intended  to  restrain  bribery, 
and  that  the  lobby-agent's  business  of  corrupting 
the  very  fountains  of  legislation  is  a  felonious 
calling,  no  one  doubts ;  and  yet  who  ever  heard 
of  a  single  case  of  the  kind  in  this  State  being 
brought  up  for  trial  ?  The  "  strong  statutes  "  are 
powerless  against  the  apparently  universal  demo 
ralization  of  this  capital ;  and  when  we  come  to 
trace  back  whence  all  this  villany  has  flowed  out 
upon  us  *  *  *.  But  that  would  be  an  endless 
consideration. 


BKOADWAY  AND   CROSS-TOWN  RAILROADS.    279 

GOV.  TEUTON'S  ATTITUDE — WE   GO  OUR  ENTIRE 
PILE  ON  HIS  FIDELITY. 

"  Amid  the  lewd  passions  of  this  heady  time 
He  stands  unmoved ;  as,  in  the  stormy  swill 
Of  the  wild  waves  upon  a  rocky  coast, 
Some  granite  column  heaves  its  shoulder  up, 
Crowned  with  a  light  which  seamen  bless  afar." 

This  letter  has  not  been  a  cheerful  one.  Let 
me  conclude  with  something  pleasant,  to  find 
which  I  pass  out  of  the  lobby  and  enter  the 
Executive  Chamber.  No  matter  what  takes  place 
in  the  Senate  or  Assembly  Chambers,  or  both,  we 
have  here  a  power  too  pure  for  the  foul  fingers  of 
corruption  to  approach — too  high  to  be  influenced 
by  any  of  the  little  mousing  schemes  which  are  in 
operation  to  entangle  him.  Personal  honesty,  and 
his  veto  of  this  very  bill  last  session,  were  the 
redeeming  features  of  Governor  Seymour's  admi 
nistration ;  and  the  same  quality,  and  a  like  act, 
— should  the  present  bill  pass  the  Senate — will 
doubly  assure  the  people  of  our  State  that,  in 
selecting  Governor  Fenton,  they  made  a  choice 
most  wise  in  all  particulars.  He  does  not  wish  to 
be  obliged  to  use  his  veto  power  in  this  matter, 
but  hopes  and  relies  that  his  friends  in  the  Senate 
will  not  allow  this  poisoned  chalice  to  be  present 
ed  to  his  lips.  If  they  do,  he  may  still  "love 
them,"  but  they  "  will  never  more  be  officers  of 


280    BROADWAY  AND   CROSS-TOWN  RAILROADS. 

his."  With  them  the  whole  question  rests ;  for 
although  the  bill  passes  from  their  House  to  the 
Assembly — in  that  body  there  is  known  to  be  a 
partly  political,  partly  venal  majority,  only  eager 
for  the  spoil — the  price  of  votes  being  openly 
talked  of  as  $500  down  for  each  vote  on  each  of 
the  two  bills — Broadway  and  Cross-town — and 
$2,500  additional  on  the  signing  of  both  bills  by 
the  Governor,  being  an  aggregate  of  $3,500  all 
told.  Their  thousand  dollars  each  these  unfortu 
nate  creatures  may  earn ;  but  let  them  be  well 
assured  that,  under  no  possible  circumstances,  can 
the  balance  promised  ever  become  their  due.  If 
they  think  $1,000  a  fair  price  for  their  political 
lives,  let  them  accept  what  is  offered,  and  go  down 
to  the  infamy  of  oblivion  with  the  brand  of  this 
poorly  paid  iniquity  upon  their  dishonored 
brows.* 

And  now,  my  beloved  brethren,  this  city  rail 
road  sermon  will  close  with  one  brief  extract  from 
a  pure  Greek  poet — an  extract  which  can  be  sung 
melodiously  to  that  divine  Italian  air,  the  "  Groves 
of  Blarney,"  and  in  the  singing  of  which  you  are 
all  respectfully  requested  to  join  chorus.  It  reads 

*  This  letter  killed  the  bill  for  that  Session  ;  but  as  the  pro 
posed  theft  is  of  a  franchise  worth  at  least  $3,000,000,  we  shall 
see  the  same  or  kindred  villains  at  work  in  the  same  scheme 
year  in  and  year  out  until  either  their  villany  is  accomplished 
or  they  are  hung  by  an  indignant  people. 


BROADWAY  AND  CROSS-TOWN  RAILROADS.    281 

as  follows,  and  the  rank  of  its  author  was  that  of 
private  soldier  in  the  armies  of  the  Union ;  and 
his  name  was — but  I  happen  just  now  to  forget 
it: 

"  Some  people  wondher 

Whin  they  see  the  plundher 
That  is  goin'  on  daily  in  full  public  view, 

That  the  town  don't  rise  up, 

Fix  a  hundhred  ties  up, 
And  do  some  lynchin'  on  the  godless  crew. 

But  we  say  to  the  divil 

Wid  all  such  dhrivel, 
The  'machines'  is  mighty  an'  they  can't  be  beat; 

So  let's  all  '  go  in/  boys, 

'Tis  the  way  to  win,  boys, 
An'  let  aich  of  us  have  a  railroad  in  his  private  street  I" 

Very  obediently  your  servant, 

M.  O'E. 


HOME  OF  THE  HIGHER  BOHEMIA. 

CONTKIBUTIONS  TO   ITS    ALBUM    FROM    DISTIN 
GUISHED  AUTHORS. 

MR.  WM.  STUART,  of  the  Winter  Garden 
Theatre,  keeps  for  the  benefit  of  himself  and 
friends,  a  very  delightful  villa  near  New  London, 
where  one  can  pass  a  few  days  more  agreeably 
than  in  any  other  house  at  present  known  to  us. 
The  villa  is  delightfully  located,  overlooking  the 
broadest  part  of  the  Sound,  and  with  very  pretty 
garden  and  other  grounds  around  it.  The  snipe, 
duck,  and  plover-shooting  in  the  vicinity  is  excel 
lent  ;  while  of  the  warm  and  refined  hospitality 
of  the  occupier  and  proprietor  we  need  not  speak, 
nor  of  that  eminent  social  genius  which  draws 
around  him  men  of  the  most  diverse  opinions  and 
stations,  and  can  yet  harmonize  all  otherwise  war 
ring  and  discordant  elements  into  an  agreeable 
mosaic  of  very  pleasant  and  enlivening  contradic 
tions. 

At  this  "  Home  of  the  Good  Samaritan  for  the 
used-up  children  of  Bohemia,"  as  one  guest  called 
it,  we  meet  every  one  that  is  any  one,  and  nobody 
that  is  not  something.  We  have  bankers,  journal- 


HOME  OF  THE  HIGHEE  BOHEMIA.  283 

ists,  sportsmen,  tragedians,  poets,  brokers,  diplo 
matists,  foreign  celebrities,  domestic  representa 
tives,  warriors,  lawyers,  yachtmen,  comedians, 
dramatists — an  omnium  gatherum,  in  fact,  of  all 
that  is  remarkable,  queer,  fantastic,  or  note- worthy 
within  the  extensive  circle  of  Mr.  Stuart's 
acquaintance. 

Last  year  the  institution  of  an  album  was 
started,  in  which  each  guest  is  requested  to  write 
his  name  during  his  visit  and  attach  thereto  any 
rhymes,  sentiments,  or  other  remarks  he  may  feel 
prompted  to  leave  behind  him  for  the  benefit  of 
those  guests  who  are  to  follow  him  in  the  revolv 
ing  circle  of  manager  Stuart's  hospitality ;  and  it 
is  from  this  volume  that  we  make  the  following 
extracts,  the  first  of  which,  on  opening  the  volume, 
we  find  to  be  in  a  handwriting  that  looks  as 
familiar  as  our  own  : 

RULES 

For  the  government  of  the  Home  of  the  Good  Samaritan,  in 
which  all  worthy  and  used-up  children  of  Bohemia  find 
hospitable  and  happy  welcome  : 

In  the  home  of  the  Good  Samaritan 

You  must  be  extremely  nice, 

Emphatic  and  most  precise, 
In  doing  exactly  the  thing  you  please  : 
For  the  rule  of  the  Good  Samaritan 
Is  "  Every  man  at  his  ease." 


284          HOME  OF  THE  HIGHER  BOHEMIA. 

In  the  home  of  the  Good  Samaritan 
With  the  bright  blue  bay  before  you, 
The  shady  veranda  o'er  you, 

And  the  pleasant  bottles  in  the  room  behind ; 

You  must  feel  like  a  Good  Samaritan 
To  all  of  human  kind ! 

In  the  home  of  the  Good  Samaritan 

Your  talk  may  have  all  variety, 

Save  that  politics  or  piety, 
If  gabbled  about  some  grief  may  brew ; 
And  to  feel  like  a  Good  Samaritan 

These  topics  we  must  eschew. 

To  the  Home  of  the  Good  Samaritan, 
From  the  dust  and  heat  of  the  town, 
Bohemia  rushes  gladly  down — 

The  gifted,  the  witty,  the  wise,  the  queer ; 

"  And  oho !  "  says  the  Good  Samaritan, 

"  You  are  all  of  you  welcome  here  1 " 

By  order  of  Grand  Hierarch, 

GULIELMUS  STUARTIUS. 
MI-LES  AU-RELIUS, 

A.  A.  G.,  and  Chief  of  Staff. 

Following  this  introduction,  there  are  verses 
and  versicles,  sentiments  and  sentimentalities,  sage 
proverbs,  capital  toasts,  pungent  aphorisms,  and 
judicious  anecdotes — original  and  otherwise,  but 
mostly  original — in  the  handwriting  and  bearing 
the  signatures  of  nearly  all  the  most  prominent 


HOME  OF  THE  HIGHER  BOHEMIA.  285 

of  that  class  whom  we  recognise  in  New  York  as 
belonging  to  the  Higher  Bohemia. 

As  samples  of  the  contents  of  this  really  remark 
able  and  valuable  volume,  which  Mr.  Stuart  should 
be  restrained  by  no  mauvais  honte  from  publishing, 
if  only  as  one  of  the  curiosities  of  our  literature 
— we  have  extracted,  and  here  append  with  the 
permission  of  their  respective  and  distinguished 
authors,  the  folio  wing  jeux  d?  esprit  on  certain  pass 
ing  topics  of  the  day  from  the  pages  of  the  Good 
Samaritan's  Album. 

In  the  clear,  large,  and  beautiful  Italian  chiro- 
graphy  of  the  Hon.  Horace  Greeley,  every  letter 
like  the  best  English  copperplate,  and  every  sen 
tence  ringing  with  the  sharp,  military,  and  militant 
spirit  of  that  distinguished  bard,  warrior,  journal 
ist,  philanthropist,  and  statesman  of  Printing- 
House  Square,  we  find  the  subjoined  stirring  ap 
peal  in  behalf  of  a  then-much-needed  household 
economy,  dated  July  4,  1865. 

THE  LEAGUE  OF  ANTI-BEEFEKS. 

Pass  the  word  along  the  line, 

Let  the  butchers  come  to  grief; 
When  we  breakfast,  sup,  or  dine, 

Let  us  shun  the  sight  of  beef! 
Let  it  be  as  flesh  of  swine, 

Unto  Israel's  strict  believers ; 
Arid,  till  present  rates  decline, 

Let  us  all  be  Anti-Beefers ! 


286          HOME   OF  THE   HIGHER  BOHEMIA. 

Lovely  maid  and  tender  wife, 

Soon  our  butcher-foes  we'll  humble ; 
Join  our  league  and  share  our  strife, 

'Till  the  beefy  idol  tumble ! 
Raise  your  glistening  hands  to  heaven, 

And  swear — however  fashion  differs — 
That,  until  meat  is  cheaper  given, 

You  join  the  League  of  Anti-Beefers. 

Nor  with  hunger  need  we  pine, 

While  the  trees  their  fruitage  render ; 
Fish  are  juicy,  fresh,  and  fine, 

Salads,  too,  are  crisp  and  tender. 
Join  the  banner  that  we  raise ; 

Already,  see !  the  butcher  quivers  ! 
And  victory's  wreath,  ere  many  days, 

Shall  crown  the  brows  of  Anti-Beefei  s ! 

After  this,  in  the  revered  handwriting  of  Wm. 
Cullen  Bryant,  and  with  all  the  gloomy  earnest 
ness  and  poetic  beauty  of  the  author  of  Thanatop- 
siSj  we  find  the  remarkable  eulogy  hereinafter  set 
forth  of  Mayor  Gunther,  Kecorder  Hoffman,  City 
Inspector  Boole,  Corporation  Counsel  John  E. 
Develin,  and  Comptroller  Multiply  Taxes  Bren- 
nan,  for  their  official  agency  in  giving  the  contract 
for  cleaning  the  streets  of  New  York  to  those  three 
distinguished  patriots — Messrs.  Brown,  Shepherd 
Knapp,  andDevoe.  While  Bryant's  beautiful  Lines 
to  a  Seagull  live,  and  they  will  live  for  ever,  this 
touching  tribute  to  municipal  merit  can  never  fade 
away  from  the  recollection  of  our  grateful  citizens : 


HOME  OF  THE  HIGHER  BOHEMIA.          287 


SONG  OF   KING  PESTILENCE. 

I  am  monarch  of  all  I  survey, 

No  breeze  my  fierce  ardor  can  cool, 
I  am  King  of  Manhattan  to-day, 

Thanks  to  Brennan,  and  Develin,  and  Boole ; 
Nor  be  Hoffman  and  G-unther  forgot, 

Who  nurtured  my  birth  with  their  smiles — 
And  the  weather's  delightfully  hot, 

And  the  garbage  rots  rankly  in  piles. 

Oh,  cleanliness,  comfort,  and  health ! 

Oh,  summer-airs,  laden  with  sweets ! 
To  increase  of  some  villains  the  wealth 

Have  you  fled,  and  for  ever,  our  street? 
Must  King  Pestilence  riot  an'd  rule 

Unchecked  and  at  will  o'er  the  town, 
To  enrich  Brennan,  Develin,  and  Boole, 

And  contractors  Devoe,  Knapp,  and  Brown  ? 

In  the  tenement-houses  where  thick 

The  poor,  like  red  herrings,  are  stowed ; 
In  the  alleys  where  fever  is  quick, 

And  consumption  hath  made  its  abode ; 
Where  the  offal  is  foul  as  the  "ring" 

Of  Tweed,  Ottiwell,  Farley  and  Co.— 
I  am  king — I  am  king— I  am  king ! 

Thanks  to  Brown,  Shepherd  Knapp,  and  Devoe  ! 

Oh,  mother !  with  babe  at  your  breast, 

As  its  life  flickers  faintly  and  low, 
Be  sure  your  full  thanks  are  expressed 

To  contractors  Brown,  Knapp,  and  Devoe ! 


288          HOME  OF  THE  HIGHER  BOHEMIA. 

Their  gain  is  the  object  that  keeps 

Our  gutters  with  ordure  defiled ; 
And  'tis  they  pile  the  poison  in  heaps 

That  is  strangling  the  life  of  your  child. 

The  bright  air  of  summer  is  dense 

With  glutinous  odors  and  stenches ; 
We  breathe  at  a  dreadful  expense 

Of  olfactory  tortures  and  wrenches ; 
But  this  comforting  fact  we  should  know, 

And  close  to  our  hearts  we  should  lock  it — 
That  contractors  Brown,  Knapp,  and  Devoe 

From  this  job  two  clear  millions  will  pocket ! 

The  graveyards  will  fill,  to  be  sure, 

Much  faster  than  need  would  demand  j 
And  a  full  double-crop  of  the  poor 

I  will  reap  with  my  skeleton  hand; 
Oh,  the  widows  may  mourn  for  the  dead, 

And  the  orphans  may  snivel  their  woe — 
But  the  purses  will  largely  be  fed 

Of  contractors  Brown,  Knapp,  and  Devoe  ! 

Oh,  Fenton,  our  Governor  dear ! 

To  you  our  entreaties  ascend ; 
Let  your  guillotine,  gleaming  and  clear, 

On  the  necks  of  these  villains  descend ! 
The  basket  of  saw-dust,  we  know, 

Will  keep  the  heads  pleasant  and  cool 
Of  contractors  Brown,  Knapp,  and  Devoe, 

And  their  "  chums" — Brennan,  Develin,  and  Boole  ! 

The   next  contribution  claiming  special  atten 
tion  is  in  the  sharp  calligraphy  of  James  Gordon 


HOME  OF  THE  HIGHER  BOHEMIA.  289 

Bennett,  Senior,  of  the  Herald,  and  will  at  once 
recall  to  every  lover  of  poetry  the  affecting  Lines 
to  Marianne  from  the  same  exalted  source,  which 
appeared  some  years  ago  in  Bonner's  Ledger.  Mr. 
Bennett's  admiration  of  the  pure  legislative  charac 
ter  of  Senator  Demas  Strong,  of  Brooklyn,  is  evi 
dently  as  powerful  as  the  distinguished  legislator's 
name  would  imply,  or  as  the  aroma  which  sur 
rounded  certain  of  the  Honorable  Senator's  votes 
on  the  "Cross-town,"  "Broadway,"  and  other 
city-railroad  operations  in  the  lobbies  of  Albany. 
Thus  run  the  lines,  "suggested,"  as  the  author 
modestly  remarks,  "  by  Senator  Strong's  libel-suit 
against  George  0.  Bennett,  of  the  Brooklyn  Times, 
to  prove  himself  an  honest  legislator."  They  are 
headed  in  the  album  of  the  Home  of  the  Good 
Samaritan : 


REFRIGERATION  INSTANTANEOUS  I 

All  day  the  heat  had  been  intense, 

No  cloud  obscured  the  burning  ray, 
The  air  was  sultry,  close,  and  dense, 
And  what  we  suffered,  so  immense 

That  language  never  can  portray ; 
When  suddenly  a  coolness  came 

As  some  one  cried,  that  "  Demas  Strong 
Now  purposed  by  the  law  to  claim 
An  honest  legislator's  name  "  — 

Our  laughter  brake  forth  loud  and  long ! 
13 


290         HOME  OF  THE  HIGHER  BOHEMIA. 

And  when  again  'twas  louder  cried  : 

"  Strong  brings  a  libel-suit  to  prove 
That  never  in  corruption's  tide 
Have  his  white  hands  been  blackly  dyed  " — 

Chill  currents  o'er  us  seemed  to  move  I 
No  iceberg  drifting  toward  the  line 

Brings  quicker  chill  to  nearing  ships; 
The  coolness  grew  so  keen  and  fine, 
'Twas  piquant  as  some  well-iced  wine 

Of  bubbling  foam  to  thirsty  lips. 

"  Let  now  thy  servant  part  in  peace, 

Oh!  Lord,"  arose  our  humble  prayer; 
For  never  till  the  years  shall  cease 
Can  come  a  coolness  like  to  this — 

So  fresh,  so  pure  and  debonnair  I 
But  let  the  words  not  oft  arise, 

For  such  the  coolness  they  unfold, 
That,  spoken  oft,  a  woof  of  ice 
Seems  to  have  seized  us  in  a  vice, 

And  our  souls  perish  in  the  cold ! 

Having  quoted  from  so  many  editorial  celebri 
ties,  we  feel  compelled  to  make  room  for  the  Hon. 
Henry  J.  Eaymond's  charming  little  compliment 
to  a  Balmoral  Skirt  and  the  wearer  thereof — each 
reader  being  only  cautioned  that  the  correct  accen 
tuation  of  the  word  "  Balmoral "  is  on  the  penul 
timate  syllable  "or,"  and  not  the  ultimate  "a?," 
as  is  the  common,  but  erroneous,  pronunciation  in 
this  country.  In  all  of  Ruskin's  essays  on  art  there 
is  nothing  more  absolutely  perfect  than  the  word- 


HOME  OF  THE  HIGHER  BOHEMIA.          291 

coloring  of  this  picture.     We  ask  every  able- 
bodied  reader  on  this  side  of  fifty — is  there  ? 


THE  BALMORAL  SKIRT. 

Oh,  contrast  divine  with  the  pale,  saintly  face, 

And  the  blue  eyes  that  beam,  now  in  mirth,  now  in  dolor ! 
Oh,  Garment  that  blends  picturesqueness  and  grace, 

Suggesting  sweet  dreams  full  as  warm  as  thy  c  jlor ! 
Oh,  feet  flashing  out  from  the  roseate  ring, 

Like  doves  from  a  sunset  that  crimsons  behind  them  ! 
Oh,  flame  still  attracting  each  moth  on  the  wing 

To  court  the  embrace  which  but  dazzles  to  blind  them ! 


As  the  pomegranate  glistening,  an  apple  of  gold, 

Invites  every  tooth  with  its  flesh  to  make  issue, 
Yet  contains  richer  coloring,  fold  within  fold, 

And  the  nearer  its  heart  so  the  warmer  its  tissue ; 
Thus,  Laura,  to  me  a  pomegranate  thou  art, 

With  thy  rich  golden  hair  and  thy  lips  of  red  coral  ; 
Yea !  the  dreamy  similitude  startles  the  heart, 

When  thy  silken  skirt  raised  shows  the  glowing  "Balmo 
ral." 

We  shall  conclude  our  extracts — confessing 
that  some  of  the  imputed  Authorships  may  be 
erroneous,  as  we  only  judge  by  handwriting,  and 
handwriting,  as  the  negro  said  of  the  white  man, 
is  known  to  be  "berry  onsartain  " — by  giving 
one  very  undoubtedly  from  the  pen  of  Private 
Miles  O'Reilly,  which,  having  made  its  first 


292          HOME  OF  THE  HIGHER  BOHEMIA. 

appearance  in  Mr.  Stuart's  album,  has  since  been 
published  in  Harper's  Weekly,  and  extensively 
copied  from  that  paper : 

NOT    QUITE   IN  VAIN. 

How  often  in  days  of  our  sore  distress, 
When  we  faint  with  an  absolute  weariness 

Of  endless  labor  and  endless  pain, 
The  sickening  thoughts  in  our  souls  will  rise, 
Clouding  with  gloom  even  the  summer  skies, 
And  chilling  the  pulse  and  filling  the  eyes — 

1  We  have  lived — we  have  lived  in  vain !" 

When  hearts  we  thought  golden  and  trusted  best, 
Prove  but  shrivelling  dross  in  the  fiery  test 

Which  the  Fates  for  all  friendships  ordain; 
As  we  turn  the  false  picture  with  face  to  the  wall, 
Or  veil  the  lost  idol  with  charity's  pall, 
How  cold  on  the  soul  seems  the  whisper  to  fall — 

"  We  have  lived — we  have  lived  in  vain  I" 

When  some  prize  of  ambition,  for  years  postponed, 
Is  at  length  attained,  yet  we  feel  unatoned 

For  the  struggle  that  gave  us  the  gain — 
Oh,  spurning  the  dead-sea  fruit  we  sought, 
"Must  it  ever  be  thus?"  is  the  weary  thought, 
And  again  to  our  ear  is  the  whisper  brought — 

"We  have  lived — we  have  lived  in  vain  !" 

Oh,  friends!  how  rare  in  this  workaday  life 
Are  the  prizes,  if  won,  that  are  worth  the  strife, 
The  clangor,  the  dust,  and  the  strain! 


HOME  OF  THE  HIGHER  BOHEMIA.  293 

There  is  only  one  in  the  world  below, 
But  one,  that,  whatever  its  price  of  woe, 
Bids  the  soul  in  the  veins  to  exultingly  know 
That  we  have  not  lived  in  vain. 

'Tis  that  moment  unspeakable — best  unsaid — 
When  blushingly  downward  the  dear  drooping  head 

To  our  breast  for  the  first  time  we  strain; 
And  the  promise  is  given,  not  in  words,  but  in  sighs, 
And  the  sweet  humid  tenderness  filling  her  eyes — 
"  Oh,  soul  of  my  soul,  if  my  love  be  a  prize, 
Then  you  have  not  lived  in  vain  1" 

MILES  O'REILLY. 

In  salient  contrast  with  the  loving  and  eminent 
ly  human  character  of  the  preceding  verses,  are 
the  subjoined  quaint,  tender,  and  pathetic  stanzas 
in  which  Theodore  Tilton  of  the  Independent  sets 
forth  the  longing  of  his  soul  for  immortality,  and 
pictures  forth  the  kind  of  paradise  to  which  his  high- 
strung  spirit  so  ardently  aspires.  Special  attention 
is  requested  to  the  terse  Saxon  force  with  which  this 
young  but  eminent  theologian  declares  his  wishes — 
no  such  complete  mastery  of  brief  expression  being 
attainable  by  any  one  who  had  not  thoroughly  mas 
tered  and  familiarized  his  mind  with  John  Bunyan's 
Pilgrim 's  Progress.  We  must  all  remember  the 
striking  view  of  a  happy  hereafter  given  by  Charles 
Lamb  when  he  stammered  out,  "  I  believe  Heaven 
is  a  place  where  one  lies  on  a  sofa  all  day,  and  al 
ways  has  new  novels ;"  but  on  comparing  this  unfi- 


29 i         HOME   OF  THE  HIGHER  BOHEMIA. 

nished  picture  with  Mr.  Tilton's  more  elaborate 
sketch  of  the  same  thought,  no  reader,  however 
dull,  can  fail  to  see  in  which  direction  the  palm  of 
merit  should  be  awarded : 

MY  PEIVATE   HEAVEN. 

BY   THEODORE    TILTON. 

Well,  talk  of  pleasures  as  you  will, 

'Tis  all  a  point  of  taste ; 
Some  like  to  scrape,  collect,  and  fill, 

Some  like  to  spend  and  waste. 
Some  choose  in  love's  young  smile  to  bask, 

Exchanging  sigh  and  look ; 
But  give  to  me — 'tis  all  I  ask — 

My  coffee,  pipe,  and  book  I 

Some,  led  by  fortune's  fickle  star, 

All  seas  and  countries  roam  ; 
And  some — I  think  the  wisest  far — 

Prefer  to  stay  at  home. 
Some  love  the  angler's  tedious  task, 

The  harmless  fish  to  hook ; 
But  give  to  me — 'tis  all  I  ask — 

My  coffee,  pipe,  and  book. 

Some  love  to  hunt  with  gun  and  hound, 

Some  hunt  for  wealthy  widows ; 
Some  go  geologizing  round, 

Some  botanize  in  meadows. 
Full  many  love  to  steal  a  kiss 

In  some  not  public  nook  ; 
But  give  to  me — 'tis  all  I  ask — 

My  coffee,  pipe,  and  book. 


HOME  OF  THE   HIGHER  BOHEMIA.  295 

Yes!  many  men  have  many  tricks, 

To  make  a  pleasant  living ; 
And  Tom  takes  up  with  politics, 

While  Dick  does  bolder  thieving. 
Full  many  tastes  to  us  are  given, 

And  each  man's  whim  I  brook; 
But  give  me  as  my  private  Heaven, 

My  coffee,  pipe,  and  book ! 


EECOLLECTKXMS  OF   THE  WAR. 

HUNTER'S  RAID  UP  THE  VALLEY. — STONEWALL 

JACKSON'S  GRAVE. 

CHAPTER  I. 

OUR  advance  upon  Lexington  was  in  four  co 
lumns — General  Averell's  cavalry  on  the  extreme 
right ;  Crook's  West  Virginia  infantry  right  cen 
tre  ;  Sullivan's  infantry  left  centre ;  and  Duffle's 
cavalry  on  the  extreme  left,  having  in  fact  wan 
dered  over  to  the  east  side  of  the  Blue  Ridge  and 
there  lost  its  way — as  was  the  custom  of  its  Gene 
ral  Commanding. 

The  enemy,  under  General  McCausland — who 
succeeded  General  Wm.  E.  Jones,  killed  at  Pied 
mont  a  few  days  before — fell  back  before  our 
advance,  but  not  without  offering  a  vigorous 
opposition.  The  brigades  of  Imboden,  Yaughan, 
Echolls,  "Mudwall"  Jackson,  Jones,  McCausland, 
and  a  cloud  of  guerillas  under  Mosby,  Gilmer,  and 
McNeil,  broke  down  all  bridges  in  their  rear,  ob 
structed  the  roads  wherever  feasible,  and  from 
every  eminence  played  on  the  heads  of  our  advanc 
ing  columns  with  their  artillery,  while  also  doing 
a  large  bushwhacking  business  from  the  dense 
woods  through  which  we  had  to  pass. 

But  the  weather  was  beautiful  in  that  beautiful 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR.  297 

valley,  and  our  troops  in  the  highest  spirits.  At 
Stanton  we  had  sent  back  our  prisoners,  number 
ing  about  thirteen  hundred  Confederate  soldiers, 
and  had  dismissed  some  five  or  six  hundred  other 
prisoners — old  men  and  mere  boys  belonging  to 
the  Eeserve  Militia — as  not  worth  any  further 
thought.  "We  had  also  sent  back  all  our  spare 
transportation  and  stores  not  absolutely  needed — 
the  guard  for  this  train  consisting  of  one  Ohio 
regiment  of  volunteers  whose  term  of  service  had 
expired,  two  regiments  of  Ohio  militia  only  called 
out  for  one  hundred  days,  and  a  battalion  of 
cavalry — the  whole  under  command  of  Major- 
General  Julius  Stahl,  who  had  been  slightly 
wounded  in  the  shoulder  some  few  days  before 
at  Piedmont,  while  leading  the  last  charge  in 
which  the  rebels  had  been  broken.  Stahl's  orders 
were,  on  his  return,  to  collect  all  the  troops  he 
could  at  Martinsburgh — probably  about  five  thou 
sand — and  then  to  follow  after  us  with  a  train  of 
extra  ammunition  and  supplies. 

Never  did  an  army  advance  through  a  lovelier 
country  than  was  the  Shenandoah  Valley  between 
Stanton  and  Lexington  in  that  soft  month  of  June. 
Vast  fields  of  purple  and  white  clover  gave  ample 
and  delicious  pasturage  to  our  cattle  ;  and  from  a 
pocket-book  then  carried,  we  extract  the  first 
stanza  of  a  song  commenced,  but  never  finished — 
nor  now  ever  likely  to  be : 
13* 


298  RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE   WAR. 

The  meadows  are  thick  with  clover, 

Mottled  the  leaves  and  purple  the  flowers, 

And  the  clouds  that  trail  heavily  over 
The  valley  are  big  with  showers. 

Occasionally  light  showers  just  freshened  the 
atmosphere  ;  and  the  lofty  peaks  of  the  Blue 
Eidge  on  our  left,  clothed  with  foliage  and  ver 
dure  to  their  highest  summits,  looked  lovely 
enough  to  deserve  the  pencil  of  Church  or  Bier- 
stadt.  The  country  around  showed  no  signs  of 
war,  save  here  and  there,  at  advantageous  points, 
some  rail-fence  rifle-pits  thrown  up  by  the  enemy 
the  night  before,  and  from  which  they  were  conti 
nually  driven  or  outflanked  by  our  advancing 
columns. 

MARKS   OF  PREVIOUS  CONFLICT,   AND    TEMPER  OF 
THE   PEOPLE. 

Up  the  Shenandoah  to  Harrisonburgh,  the  coun 
try  had  been  traversed  and  desolated  in  repeated 
campaigns — fields  without  fences,  showing  where 
armies  had  encamped ;  desolate  and  fire-blackened 
stone  chimneys,  standing  up  like  pillars  to  mark 
where  happy  homes  had  ceased  to  be ;  long  grave- 
trenches  of  red  earth,  recalling  the  legend  that  here 
Stonewall  Jackson  had  whipped  Banks,  or  Milroy, 
or  given  rude  check  to  Fremont,  or  held  his  own 
and  accomplished  his  purpose  of  retreat,  despite 
the  headlong  fury  of  General  Shields's  attack. 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR.  299 

Martinsburgh  was  a  desolate  and  forsaken  town, 
which  had  changed  masters  half  a  dozen  times 
under  the  fluctuating  fortunes  of  battle — soon  to 
have  two  changes  more.  Winchester  was  much 
the  same — aristocratic  and  bitterly  rebellious — 
with  vast  earthworks  and  forts  on  the  hills  sur 
rounding  it,  but  utterly  indefensible  from  the 
nature  of  the  country  in  which  it  lay.  At  Stras- 
burg  and  Woodstock  the  people  were  sullenly 
silent  as  we  passed  through  the  streets — only 
some  shrill-tongued  females  having  the  boldness 
to  cry  : 

"  We've  seen  men  with  your  colored  clothes  go 
up  this  valley  afore;  and  we've  seen  'em  come 
back  this  way  a  mighty  sight  faster  than  they 
went  up." 

All  the  bridges  from  Cedar  Creek  to  Newmar 
ket  had  been  broken  down  by  General  Sigel, 
about  ten  or  twelve  days  before  our  advance,  in 
his  headlong  retreat  from  the  latter  place,  fancy 
ing  himself  pursued  all  the  way  by  the  victorious 
forces  of  General  Breckinridge,  who  had  really 
only  followed  him  in  force  as  far  as  Edinburgh — 
also  a  bitterly  rebellious  and  much-scourged  town, 
famous  in  the  South  for  its  manufacture  of  patent 
medicines.  At  Newmarket,  or  rather  at  Rood's. 
Hill,  on  this  side  of  it,  we  came  on  the  shocking 
debris  of  the  recent  battle,  many  scores  of  our  men 
being  so  imperfectly  buried  that  their  blackened 


300          ^  RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR. 

and  wormy  limbs  protruded  through  the  earth, 
while  the  air  was  horribly  impregnated  with  the 
Bouquet  de  Rottenhoss — as  "Porte  Crayon"  used 
to  call  the  dead  remains  of  our  cavalry  and  artil 
lery  animals.  • 

ANECDOTE   OF    "  PORTE   CRAYON  "    AND   GENERAL 
SIGEL. 

And  here  let  me  give  a  little  story  of  "  Porte 
Crayon,"  and  then  this  digression  shall  termi 
nate: 

It  was  after  the  battle  of  Newmarket,  while 
Sigel  was  in  headlong  retreat  down  the  Shenan- 
doah  turnpike,  that  news  reached  his  small  and 
discomfited  army  of  General  Averell's  success  in 
destroying  certain  important  railroads  in  South 
Western  Virginia. 

"  Oh  ho  !"  said  Colonel  Strother  ("  Porte  Cray 
on  "),  who  was  then  Sigel's  chief  of  staff.  "  By 
Jove,  boys !  the  Department  of  West  Virginia  is 
doing  a  big  business.  General  Averell's  tearing 
up  the  railroad,  and  General  Sigel's  tearing  down 
the 'pike!" 

To  make  the  matter  better,  an  innocent  young 
staff  officer  tried  to  cheer  his  chopfallen  General 
by  repeating  this  story  to  him  as  "  Porte  Cray 
on's"  last  bon  mot;  bat  the  General  couldn't  see 
jt  in  any  such  light. 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE   WAR.  301 

"  By  gar,"  tie  exclaimed,  "  I  vill  not  haaf  beo- 
ples  zayin'  dem  kind  o'  tings !  By  gar,  I  pelief 
dere  are  beoples  on  mein  staff  who  are  not  griefed 
to  zee  me  dearin'  down  de  'pike !  By  gar,  Colonel 
Strodare  must  not  zay  dem  kind  o'  tings,  or  he 
veel  be  court-martial !" 

Let  me  add,  in  justice  to  our  Teutonic  General, 
against  whom  this  story  rather  tells,  that  Colonel 
Strother  was  at  all  times  emphatic  in  speaking  of 
the  perfectly  reckless  manner  in  which  General 
Sigel  exposed  himself  and  staff  in  the  last  hours 
of  the  battle  of  Newmarket — the  gallant  Colonel, 
now  Adjutant-General  of  Virginia  on  Governor 
Pierpont's  staff,  equally  asserting  that  there  was 
no  trace  of  cowardice  in  General  Sigel,  as  there 
certainly  was  none  of  generalship. 

And  now  to  return  from  our  digression,  and 
hasten  on  to  Lexington  as  fast  as  possible. 

BATTLE    OF    PIEDMONT. — A  BAD  CASE   OF  WHIP. 

Quitting  Harrisonburgh,  which  we  had  entered 
with  only  some  inconsiderable  skirmishing,  we 
amused  the  enemy  for  a  few  days  by  some  feints 
on  their  strong — indeed,  nearly  impregnable — 
lines  at  Mount  Crawford,  just  in  front  of  us ;  and 
then  suddenly  wheeling  to  the  left — our  move 
ments  covered  by  a  cloud  of  cavalry,  under  the 
guidance  of  poor  young  Meigs  of  the  Engineers, 


302  RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR. 

since  killed,  son  of  the  Quartermaster- General — 
we  crossed  the  Shenandoah  at  Port  Republic  on 
pontoons  and  by  wading;  and  then  found  our 
selves  in  a  virgin  part  of  the  valley,  which  had 
never  previously  seen  our  uniforms  except  on 
prisoners  being  sent  to  Lynchburgh  by  Lee  or 
Jackson.  This  was  on  the  4th  of  June,  1864, — 
a  miserable  day,  the  rain  pouring  in  torrents ;  and 
well  for  us  that  it  did  so,  as  it  helped  to  mislead 
the  enemy. 

Next  morning,  at  daylight,  commenced  the  bat 
tle  of  Piedmont,  or  Stanton,  as  the  enemy  more 
properly  called  it — Stanton  being  the  prize  at 
which  we  aimed.  The  forces  actually  engaged 
were  about  equal,  General  Hunter  having  some 
nine  thousand  men  actually  in  action,  while  the 
enemy  had  about  the  same — strongly  posted,  how 
ever,  on  a  range  of  hills,  horse-shoe  shaped,  and 
heavily  timbered,  and  further  protected  by  rifle- 
pits  and  rail-fence  barricades,  hastily  thrown  up 
the  night  before.  The  rebel  morning  report  of 
the  day  previous,  found  on  the  dead  body  of 
General  Jones  that  afternoon,  showed  that  he  had 
then  under  him  6,800  regular  Confederate  sol 
diers,  while  we  knew  that  he  was  joined  on  the 
morning  of  the  engagement  by  Vaughan's  brigade 
from  East  Tennessee,  and  also  by  about  fifteen 
hundred  militia — old  men  and  young  boys,  not 
worth  the  powder  required  to  kill  them — hurried 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAK.  303 

forward  from  Stanton  and  Lynchburgh  on  news 
of  our  advance. 

The  fight,  though  not  large  in  numbers,  was 
singularly  obstinate  and  fluctuating,  the  enemy 
beating  back  repeated  charges  of  our  infantry  and 
cavalry,  under  Generals  Sullivan  and  Stahl — for 
neither  the  divisions  of  Crook  and  Averell  had 
then  joined  us ;  and  it  was  quite  late  in  the  after 
noon,  after  a  long  and  sweltering  day  of  battle, 
when  the  movement  of  the  gallant  Colonel  Tho- 
burne's  division  across  the  narrow  valley  and  its 
charge  up  hill  upon  the  enemy's  right  flank, 
decided  the  contest  in  our  favor.  General  Wm. 
E.  Jones,  their  commander,  was  killed,  as  also 
five  colonels,  thirty  or  forty  officers,  and  some 
seven  or  eight  hundred  men  killed  or  wounded  ; 
and  we  had  about  eighteen  hundred  prisoners, 
including  the  worthless  reserve  militia,  seventy 
regular  officers,  and  twenty-eight  hundred  stand 
of  arms,  as  the  spoils  attesting  our  success. 
But  for  the  coming  on  of  night,  and  the  broken, 
heavily-timbered  nature  of  the  country,  the  famous 
feat  of  "bagging"  that  army — so  popular  with 
Congressional  orators  and  enthusiastic  editors — 
might  have  been  easily  accomplished  ;  for  a  worse 
whipped  or  more  utterly  demoralized  crowd  of 
beaten  men  never  fled  from  any  field. 


304  RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE   WAR. 


ALEXANDER  H.   H.    STUART. — ONE  LOYAL  POLITI 
CIAN  IN  VIRGINIA. 

Next  day  we  entered  Stanton  without  any  regu 
lar  opposition,  destroying  the  railroad  thoroughly 
on  each  side  of  it,  and  also  enormous  quantities 
of  quartermaster,  commissary,  and  ordnance  stores 
there  accumulated ;  and,  riding  into  town,  the 
first  person  the  writer  had  any  conversation  with 
was  the  Hon.  Alexander  H.  H.  Stuart,  once  a  Whig 
member  of  the  Washington  Cabinet,  and  now 
again  becoming  prominent  in  Virginia  politics. 
He  was  a  handsome,  portly,  tall,  middle-aged  and 
gray -headed  gentleman,  a  good  deal  resembling 
Mayor  Berret,  of  Washington  ;  and  one  observa 
tion  that  he  made  to  us — indeed,  almost  the  first 
— was  memorable  in  that  land  of  secession  pro 
clivities  : 

We  were  sitting,  with  Mr.  Stuart,  the  Mayor, 
County  Clerk,  and  other  dignitaries  of  the  town, 
on  the  stoop  of  the  Stanton  Bank,  when  the  head 
of  our  infantry  column  appeared,  preceded  by  a 
band  of  music,  playing  "  Hail  Columbia,"  and  an 
enormous  banner  of  the  Stars  and  Stripes,  almost 
breaking  the  long  pole — for  there  was  a  thunder 
storm  just  then — on  which  the  soldiers  carried  it. 

"That's  a  grand  old  tune,"  said  Mr.  Stuart, 
somewhat  huskily,  and  with  a  slight  quaver  in  his 
voice.  "  A  grand  old  tune,  and  a  grand  old  flag. 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR.  305 

It's  long  since  I  have  seen  the  one,  or  heard  the 
other  " — and  he  looked  as  if  he  were  not  sorry. 
It  is  but  justice  to  Mr.  Stuart  to  add,  that  he  was 
one  of  those  who  had  vehemently  opposed  the 
ordinance  of  secession,  and  was  always  regarded 
as  being  so  much  a  Union  man  as  it  was  safe  for 
any  one  to  be  in  those  parts,  during  the  entire 
rebellion. 

A  SONG  BY  OUR  IRREPRESSIBLE  ORDERLY. 

While  referring  again  to  our  field  note-book  for 
these  particulars — hastily  jotted  down  at  the  time, 
and  jumbled  up  with  all  manner  of  army  and 
private  memoranda — we  find  in  pencil,  on  the 
back  of  a  rough  morning  report  sent  in  by  Gene 
ral  Sullivan,  the  following  lines,  hastily  scribbled, 
and  which  we  now  publish-  for  the  first  time,  as 
some  indication  of  the  kind"  of  thoughts  with 
which  the  mind  amuses  itself  and  seeks  relaxation 
in  the  midst  of  scenes  like  these.  It  is  a  soldier- 
song  in  verity — a  song  of  the  rank  and  file,  rough 
and  wholly  unpolished ;  but  not,  we  think,  with 
out  some  true  spirit  of  the  camp  in  its  hasty 
stanzas : 


306  RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR. 

THE  CANTEEN. 

BY   PRIVATE   MILES    O*REILLY. 

There  are  bonds  of  all  sorts  in  this  world  of  ours, 
Fetters  of  friendship  and  ties  of  flowers, 

And  true-lovers'  knots,  I  ween  j 
The  girl  and  the  boy  are  bound  by  a  kiss, 
But  there's  never  a  bond,  old  friend,  like  this — 

We  have  drunk  from  the  same  canteen  I 


It  was  sometimes  water,  and  sometimes  milk, 
And  sometimes  apple-jack,  fine  as  silk, 

But  whatever  the  tipple  has  been, 
We  shared  it  together,  in  bane  or  bliss, 
And  I  warm  to  you,  friend,  when  I  think  of  this — 

We  have  drunk  from  the  same  canteen ! 


The  rich  and  the  great  sit  down  to  dine, 

And  they  quaff  to  each  other  in  sparkling  wine, 

From  glasses  of  crystal  and  green ; 
But  I  guess  in  their  golden  potations  they  miss 
The  warmth  of  regard  to  be  found  in  this — 

We  have  drunk  from  the  same  canteen. 


We  have  shared  our  blankets  and  tents  together, 
And  have  marched  and  fought  in  all  kinds  of  weather, 

And  hungry  and  full  we  have  been ; 
Had  days  of  battle  and  days  of  rest, 
But  this  memory  I  cling  to  and  love  the  best — 

We  have  drunk  from  the  same  canteen ! 


RECOLLECTIONS   OF  THE   WAR.  307 

For  when  wounded  I  lay  .on  the  outer  slope, 
With  my  blood  flowing  fast,  and  but  little  hope 

Upon  which  my  faint  spirit  could  lean ; 
Oh,  then,  I  remember,  you  crawled  to  my  side, 
And,  bleeding  so  fast,  it  seemed  both  must  have  died, 

We  drank  from  the  same  canteen. 


MARCH    FROM    STANTON,    AND   CAPTURE    OF    LEX 
INGTON. 

At  Stanton  we  were  soon  joined  by  the  infan 
try  division  under  General  Crook,  and  the  ca 
valry  under  General  Averell;  our  force  being 
thus  raised — allowing  for  what  we  had  to  send 
back  from  here  with  the  prisoners  and  trains — to 
an  effective  body  of  some  twenty  thousand  men  ; 
and  it  was  with  this  force  we  were  advancing 
against  Lexington  when  this  paper  of  "recollec 
tions"  opened. 

Our  first  day's  march  of  twenty  miles  from 
Stanton  brought  us  to  a  little  hamlet  variously 
styled  Midway  of  Steele's  Tavern ;  and  the  next 
day's  march,  notwithstanding  all  the  vehement 
though  irregular  opposition  offered  by  McCaus- 
land,  brought  us  by  noon  on  a  hill  overlooking 
the  pretty  city  of  Lexington. 

Here  we  found  that  McCausland  was  making 
what  promised  to  be  a  resolute  stand — the  Lynch- 
burgh  canal  defending  his  right  flank,  while  a 
branch  of  the  Shenandoah  river,  sweeping  round 


308  KECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR. 

a  high  perpendicular  bluff  of  rock  on  which  was 
situated  the  Lexington  Military  Institute,  offered 
a  serious  barrier  to  our  progress.  The  bridge  by 
which  he  had  crossed  into  the  town  was  now  a 
pile  of  smoking  ruins,  and  all  our  efforts  to  find  a 
ford  or  lay  our  pontoons  were  met  with  deter 
mined  opposition.  From  every  house  and  emi 
nence  commanding  the  river  and  its  approaches, 
and  from  the  windows  and  grounds  of  the  Mili 
tary  Institute,  a  close  and  deadly  fire  both  of  mus 
ketry  and  artillery  was  kept  up  against  us ;  and 
it  was  not  until  late  in  the  afternoon  that  McCaus- 
land  abandoned  this  defence,  finding  his  left  flank 
in  danger  of  being  turned,  and  his  retreat  cut  off 
by  General  Averell,  who  had  found  a  ford  some 
miles  higher  up  and  crossed  with  his  cavalry. 

It  thus  came  to  pass  that  it  was  late  that  even 
ing  before  we  entered  Lexington ;  and  now,  before 
speaking  of  Stonewall  Jackson's  grave,  let  the 
writer  be  permitted  a  few  words  of  explanation 
as  to  two  acts  committed  at  this  place,  for  which 
General  Hunter  has  been  most  acrimoniously, 
and,  as  we  shall  prove,  most  senselessly  and  un 
justly  abused.  We  refer  to  the  burning  of  Gov. 
Letcher's  house  and  the  Virginia  Military  Insti 
tute. 


RECOLLECTIONS   OF   THE   WAR.  309 


BURNING  OF  EX-GOVERNOR  LETCHER'S  HOUSE. 

The  "West  Virginia  troops,  forming,  with  some 
regiments  from  Maryland,  the  elite  of  our  little 
army,  were  furious  beyond  measure  against  John 
Letcher.  He  had  been  a  Union  man,  they,  said, 
who  had  sold  his  principles  for  promotion  in  the 
rebel  service ;  and,  as  was  the  case  with  all  apos 
tates  of  this  kind,  had  then  signalized  his  devo 
tion  to  his  new  faith  by  unheard-of  oppressions 
and  cruelties  against  all  of  his  former  associates 
who  persisted  in  remaining  faithful  to  their  creed 
of  loyalty.  They  charged  against  him  gross  and 
wanton  outrages  upon  the  liberties,  lives,  and  pro 
perty  of  all  the  loyal  men  within  his  reach  ;  and  so 
strongly  was  their  desire  for  retaliation  manifested, 
that  General  Hunter/in  order  to  protect  the  family 
of  the  fugitive  ex-Governor,  who  had  only  fled 
the  night  before,  directed  that  a  guard  of  two 
companies  from  some  Ohio  regiment — the  116th, 
if  we  remember  rightly — should  be  detailed  for 
the  security  of  Mr.  Letcher's  residence.  Several 
officers  of  General  Hunter's  staff,  also — of  whom 
Captain  Towne,  chief  signal  officer,  was  one,  and 
Captain  Prendergast,  since  killed,  another — took 
up  their  quarters  with  the  Letchers — partly  as  it 
was  a  pleasant,  though  small  and  rather  modest 
mansion ;  and  partly  to  give  additional  protection 
to  the  frightened  family  of  females — ex-Governor 


310  RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR. 

Letcher  having  fled  the  night  previous  to   our 
entrance. 

Thus  matters  stood  until  next  day,  when  some 
soldiers  of  the  9th  West  Virginia,  under  Colonel — 
now  General — Duvall,  happened  to  find  in  an 
abandoned  printing-office,  already  half  set  up  in 
type — the  manuscript  in  John  Letcher's  hand, 
and  over  his  signature,  of  a  proclamation  to  the 
citizens  of  "  Rockbridge  and  other  Counties,"  call 
ing  upon  them  to  "  arise  and  slay  the  foul  Yankee 
invader;"  and  if  unable  to  offer  any  organized  re 
sistance,  then  from  behind  every  tree  and  stone  in 
the  valley,  to  kill  us  as  they  could.  It  was,  in  other 
words,  a  direct  incitation  to  bushwhacking  and 
murder ;  and  if  Mr.  John  Letcher  had  been  caught, 
not  only  would  his  house  have  been  burned — as 
the  houses  of  four  other  bushwhackers,  and  only 
four,  had  previously  been — but  he  would  have 
been  hung  on  the  first  tree  with  a  little  paper 
pinned  on  his  breast  bearing  this  brief  but  preg 
nant  legend : 

"  Hung  for  organizing  bushwhacking. 

"  By  command  of  Maj.-Gen.  Hunter." 

What  folly  and  something  worse  it  is,  while 
General  Sherman  goes  blameless  for  having  burned 
down  whole  towns  and  cities  that  offered  any 
resistance,  to  censure  Hunter  for  his  course  in  this 
valley  campaign,  wherein — at  least,  so  far  as  we 


RECOLLECTIONS   OF  THE   WAR.  311 

have  knowledge — he  only  caused  five  private 
dwellings  to  be  destroyed,  and  these  on  conviction 
that  the  proprietors  were  assassins  and  bush 
whackers  ! 


BURNING  OF  THE  VIRGINIA  MILITARY  INSTITUTE. 

As  to  the  cry  raised  against  "  Uncle  David  "  for 
the  destruction  of  the  Virginia  Military  Institute, 
that  is  still,  if  possible,  more  senseless  and  unjust. 
General  Smith,  commanding  the  Institute,  as  we 
have  good  evidence,  protested  to  General  McCaus- 
land  against  defending  Lexington,  and  more  espe 
cially  against  using  the  Institute  as  one  of  the 
points  of  defence — stating  the  town  to  be  wholly 
indefensible,  in  his  judgment,  and  that  it  would 
be  made  liable  to  bombardment  and  destruction 
by  such  a  course ;  and  especially  pleading  that  to 
fire  from  the  windows  of  the  Institute  on  our 
troops,  or  to  use  it  in  any  manner  as  a  military 
point,  would  likewise,  and  still  more  strongly, 
necessitate  its  destruction. 

To  this  McCausland  replied  by  showing  his 
orders  from  General  Lee,  which  were  to  contest 
every  mile  of  our  advance  with  the  utmost  obsti 
nacy,  every  hour  gained  against  us  being  impor 
tant,  as  the  division  of  Breckinridge  and  the 
corps  of  Ewell  under  General  Jubal  Early,  were 
then  hastening  forward  by  rail  from  Eichmond  to 


312  RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE   WAR. 

his  relief.  General  Smith,  as  we  have  heard,  still 
maintained  that  using  the  Military  Institute  (ol 
which,  by  the  way,  Vaughan,  Imboden,  McCaus- 
land,  and  nearly  all  the  other  Virginia  leaders  of 
prominence  had  been  graduates,)  could  do  no 
good,  but  would  certainly  result  in  its  destruction ; 
and  finally,  when  McCausland  persisted  in  his 
course,  General  Smith  asked  to  be  relieved  from, 
service  under  him,  and  marched  away  with  his 
cadets  down  the  canal  tow-path  to  Lynchburgh. 

As  to  the  order  of  General  Lee,  we  are  certain 
— the  original  telegram  having  been  captured 
next  day  in  the  house  of  General  Smith,  at  which 
McCausland  and  the  other  generals  had  stopped 
over-night ;  and  as  to  General  Smith's  protest  and 
subsequent  action  in  the  matter,  they  were  related 
to  us  next  morning  by  a  very  intelligent  and 
respectable  old  black  man — General  Smith's  butler 
or  steward — to  whom  we  were  indebted  for  many 
comfortable  meals  during  the  next  two  days. 

This  Institute,  at  the  burning  of  which  the 
writer  looked  with  feelings  of  inexpressible  regret 
though  fully  satisfied  of  the  justice  of  the  act, 
was  an  exact  copy  of  the  West-  Point  Academy  in 
architecture,  and  perhaps  more  handsome — cer 
tainly  more  modern,  elegant  and  commodious  in 
the  houses  of  its  professors,  of  whom  the  great 
Stonewall  Jackson  had  been  one.  The  more 
valuable  books  of  its  library,  however,  and  instru- 


RECOLLECTIONS   OF   THE   WAR.  313 

ments  of  its  scientific,  astronomical,  and  chemical 
departments,  had  been  removed  before  our  advent. 
It  contained  large  quantities  of  arms  and  ordnance 
stores,  and  it  must  be  remembered  that  its  stu 
dents  had  been  organized  into  a  battalion  of  infan 
try  and  had  fought  against  us,  not  many  days 
before,  at  Newmarket.  On  its  roll  of  graduates, 
too,  could  be  found  the  names  of  hundreds  of 
prominent  rebel  officers  ;  and  this,  en  parenlhese, 
opened  our  eyes  to  comprehend  how  it  came  to 
pass  that  the  South  had  such  good  officers  uni 
formly  on  the  breaking  out  of  the  war,  while  ours, 
except  the  regulars  from  West  Point,  were  then 
so  ignorant — nearly  all  the  young  aristocracy  of 
the  South  having  been  trained  to  arms  in  just 
such  institutions  as  this  of  Lexington,  Baton 
Eouge,  and  so  forth.  This  burning  took  place  on 
the  12th  of  June,  1864. 


STONEWALL  JACKSON'S  GRAVE  AND  ITS  PECU 
LIAR  MONUMENT. 

And  now  for  a  visit  to  Stonewall  Jackson's 
grave — Jackson  who  has  always  impressed  us  as 
one  of  the  most  veritable  heroes  of  these  degene 
rate  days.  We  know  not  who  wrote  that  magni 
ficent  soldier-lyric  in  his  honor,  entitled  "  Stone 
wall  Jackson's  Way ;  "  but  do  know,  despite  its 
roughness,  that  it  is  one  of  the  grandest  tributes 
14 


314  RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE   WAR. 

ever  paid  by  the  Muse  to  the  character  of  a  Hero. 
It  is  fiery,  and  loving,  and  droll,  and  full  of  pathos 
— a  song  for  the  full  appreciation  of  which,  per 
haps,  one  should  have  made  a  campaign  or  two  in 
the  Shenandoah,  and  beheld  all  the  monuments 
of  his  genius.  "  Ah,"  said  an  old  rebel  prisoner 
to  us  once,  when  we  asked  him  which  of  their 
generals  he  had  most  faith  in:  "Ah,  Colonel! 
Johnsing  we  guess  to  be  the  retreatin'est  general 
we  ever  had  ;  but  the  grittiest  and  the  flankin'est 
was  Stonewall  Jackson." 

The  churchyard  in  which  poor  Stonewall  lies  is 
just  on  the  borders  of  the  town,  and  must  have 
been  a  pretty  and  neat  little  place  of  burial  before 
the  war.  It  has  heavy  borders  of  moss  roses  and 
the  dark  roses  of  the  South  along  its  walks,  and 
these  were  in  richest  bloom  when  we  paid  our 
visit.  Beautiful  white  marble  monuments  are 
scattered  around  in  profusion  ;  but  looking  at 
their  dates  it  will  be  seen  that  few  of  these  have 
been  erected  since  the  breaking  out  of  the  rebel 
lion.  Death  has  been  since  then  too  busy  in  the 
South  to  receive  such  honors  ;  and  the  long,  close 
rows  of  freshly-made  graves — more  especially 
those  of  a  dozen  young  cadets  killed  at  New 
market — had  no  other  trophy  or  memorial  than  a 
small  shingle  at  the  head  of  each,  bearing  a  brief 
and  rudely  painted  inscription. 

Exactly  in  the  centre  of  the  churchyard  is  the 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE   WAK.  315 

grave  of  the  great  rebel  leader — a  little  bank  of 
earth  sodded  over  with  green  clover,  and  with  two 
little  dark  boards  (now  probably  chipped  away  by 
relic-hunters)  at  its  head  and  foot.  Near  to  its 
head,  also,  a  tall  pine  flag-staff  sprang  nakedly  up 
into  the  air ;  and  on  this,  until  carried  away  by 
McCausland  in  his  retreat,  had  waved  a  Confede 
rate  battle-flag,  worked  in  threads  of  silk,  and 
gold,  and  silver,  by  certain  secession -sympathizing 
peeresses  of  England — the  Countess  of  Arundel 
and  Surrey,  if  we  remember  rightly,  having  been 
prominent  in  the  work.  This  battle-flag,  with  a 
sentry  in  gray  walking  up  and  down  beneath  it, 
had  formed  Stonewall  Jackson's  only  monument ; 
and  now  both  had  disappeared  ! 

Suppose  McCausland  had  left  both  sentry  and 
flag  on  guard  by  that  solitary  grave,  who  believes 
that  either  would  have  been  disturbed  ?  Would 
not  both  have  been  held  sacred  as  portions  of  the 
tomb  of  a  good  and  gallant  soldier?  At  any  rate 
this  thing  is  very  sure  :  that,  if  either  or  both  had 
to  be  taken  away,  the  writer  would  have  striven 
hard  to  shirk  in  his  own  person  that  particular 
tour  of  duty  ;  and  this  feeling,  so  far  as  he  could 
ascertain,  was  unanimous  amongst  all  his  younger 
associates. 

Just  in  rear  of  the  flag-staff  were  two  handsome 
white  marble  tombs  enclosed  within  an  iron  rail 
ing — one  sacred  to  the  memory  of  the  wife,  and 


316  RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE   WAR. 

the  other  to  that  of  a  beloved  child  of  "  Professor 
T.  J.  Jackson  of  the  Virginia  Military  Institute." 
Doubtless  had  the  rebellion  prospered,  a  splendid 
tomb  would  in  time  have  arisen  to  Jackson's  me 
mory  ;  and,  even  as  things  are — so  catholic  is  the 
admiration  which  valor  rouses — we  would  gladly 
contribute  our  mite  towards  the  erection  of  some 
substantial  memento  to  the  great  Genius — as  Gene 
ral  Lee  was  the  great  Eespectability — of  the 
Southern  war. 

Let  it  not  harm  us  in  the  esteem  of  our  friends 
of  the  Loyal  League  if  we  confess  the  weakness 
of  having  pulled  some  dark  roses  of  the  South  and 
strewed  them  on  Jackson's  grave,  taking  away  in 
return — reverently  and  with  uncovered  heads — 
some  few  blades  of  clover  which  we  have  still 
preserved  in  a  locket  as  one  of  the  war's  most 
precious  relics, — our  flagrant  "  treason  "  in  this 
act  having  been  shared  at  the  time  by  an  officer 
of  far  higher  position,  whose  name  as  a  cavalry 
leader  on  the  Union  side  was  then  a  terror  through 
out  the  Shenandoah  and  Kanawha  valleys. 

ODD   TOMB   OF   AN   ECCENTRIC    OLD   LADY. 

It  is  when  we  feel  most  grave  and  sentimental 
that  a,  sudden  presentation  of  any  ludicrous  thought 
or  object  becomes  most  irresistible  to  the  nerves 
of  laughter ;  and  of  this  we  had  an  illustration  on 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR.  317 

letting  our  eyes  rest  for  a  moment  upon  the  tomb 
of  an  old  lady  whose  remains  are  deposited  pre 
cisely  opposite  Stonewall  Jackson's  feet.  This 
tomb  is  a  square  house  of  granite,  probably  ten  or 
twelve  feet  square ;  and  into  its  door- way  this 
eccentric  old  dame — a  Mrs.  Hammond  or  Ham- 
mel,  we  think — had  caused  the  hall-door  of  her 
house,  painted  green,  with  her  name  regularly 
engraved  on  a  brass  plate,  and  with  a  brass  han 
dle,  a  brass  keyhole,  and  a  brass  bell-handle  in 
the  adjacent  wall,  to  be  inserted ;  so  that  it  just 
looked  as  if  we  had  nothing  to  do  but  pull  the 
bell  and  ask  was  the  defunct  occupant  within. 
No  tomb  more  quietly  ludicrous  have  we  ever 
seen ;  and  though  it  shocked  us  to  laugh  in  the 
vicinity  of  Jackson's  grave,  we  could  not  but 
laugh  heartily  in  spite  of  all  our  efforts  to  be 
serious. 

GEN.  GRANT'S  ORDERS. — IMPORTANCE  OF  THIS 
RAID. 

As  to  what  were  General  Grant's  orders  in  this 
campaign,  contrasted  with  what  were  General 
Hunter's  acts,  we  find  our  space  already  so  largely 
occupied  by  this  hurried  memoir,  that  we  must 
hold  over  their  consideration  for  another  article ; 
in  which  will  also  be  given  the  two  days  of  battle 
before  Lynchburgh,  with  the  engagements  of 


318  RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR. 

Liberty,  Salem,  and  the  retreat  across  the  Alle- 
ghanies  and  up  the  Kanawha  valley,  terminating 
at  Gauley  Bridge.  Of  this  raid — so  much  mis 
understood  by  the  public,  for  the  reason  that  we 
had  cut  loose  from  communications,  and  the  only 
reports  that  were  heard  of  our  "miscreancies" 
reached  the  North  through  the  Lynchburgh  and 
Eichmond  rebel  papers — it  must  suffice  for  this 
chapter  to  say  :  that  General  Grant  has  borne  his 
official  testimony  to  its  being,  in  his  judgment, 
the  greatest,  most  daring,  and  most  ably  conducted 
raid  of  the  war  up  to  that  time,  and  the  most 
important  in  its  results.  Hunter's  only  fault  was 
that  his  tender  and  noble  heart  did  not  allow  him 
to  execute  one- tenth  part  of  the  severity  of  his 
orders  ;  but  of  this  in  full  hereafter.  Let  us  also 
add  that  it  has  now  been  ascertained  that  General 
Lee,  at  the  time  of  this  raid,  had  set  apart  35,000 
picked  men  under  General  Early  to  hurry  for 
ward  to  reinforce  Johnson,  who  was  then  facing 
Sherman  opposite  Atlanta,  with  nearly  balanced 
forces  ;  and  that,  had  those  reinforcements  reached 
Johnson  at  that  time,  Sherman  might  have  fared 
ill  in  the  retreat  he  would  have  been  compelled  to 
undertake  towards  Nashville.  It  was  Hunter's 
success  in  the  Valley,  which  was  Lee's  arsenal  and 
granary,  that  compelled  Early  with  his  men  to  be 
sent  to  save  Lynchburgh ;  and  thus  it  was,  and 
thus  only,  that  Sherman  was  enabled  to  carry  out 


RECOLLECTIONS   OF   THE   WAR.  319 

his  superb  strategetical  conception  of  the  march 
from  Atlanta  through  the  bowels  of  the  Confe 
deracy. 

CHAPTER  II. 

CAUSE  OF  THE  HALT  AT  LEXINGTON. — SHERIDAN 
EXPECTED. 

HUNTER'S  raiding  party  of  about  eighteen  thou 
sand  effective  men  entered  Lexington  on  the  even 
ing  of  the  llth  of  June  last  year,  and  remained 
these  until  the  morning  of  the  14th — a  delay  for 
which  the  General  has  been  blamed  in  certain 
quarters.  This  blame,  of  course,  makes  no  differ 
ence,  as  had  he  not  been  censured  for  this — it 
being  then  the  fashion  to  abuse  him; — his  candid 
accusers  would  readily  have  found  some  other 
source  of  accusation. 

For  the  delay,  however,  there  were  many  valid 
and  peremptory  reasons — General  Duffie's  cavalry 
column  of  about  three  thousand  men,  detached  at 
Stan  ton  and  sent  across  the  Blue  Kidge  to  cut 
the  railroad  between  Amherst  Court-House  and 
Lynchburgh,  having  lost  its  way  in  the  moun 
tains,  as  was  usual  with  its  leader,  and  not  rejoin 
ing  the  main  command  at  Lexington  until  late  in 
the  evening  of  the  13th.  This  expedition  had  not 
been  successful,  only  slightly  damaging  the  rail 
road,  capturing  three  hundred  wagons  and  teams, 


320  RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR. 

and  taking  some  seventy  or  eighty  prisoners.  It 
brought  news,  however,  that  Sheridan  had  had  a 
heavy  fight  with  Fitz-Hugh  Lee's  cavalry  at  Char 
lottes  vi  lie  some  two  or  three  days  before ;  and 
herein — that  we  were  waiting  for  Duffle* — lies  a 
partial  explanation  of  our  delay  at  a  juncture  so 
critical.  Cut  off  from  our  communications,  and 
hearing  only  through  Eichmond  papers  and  con 
trabands  of  Sheridan's  march  toward  Charlottes- 
ville,  Hunter  naturally,  and  we  believe  rightly, 
supposed  that  Sheridan  was  attempting  to  join 
his  expedition  against  Lynchburgh ;  and  it  was 
partly  to  await  his  arrival,  and  partly  to  give 
time  for  Duffle's  cavalry  to  rejoin  us,  that  the  halt 
in  question  had  been  made. 

REASONS  FOR  A  NON-DIRECT    ADVANCE. 

But  there  were  yet  other  and  manifold  reasons 
for  the  delay.  From  our  central  position  while  at 
Lexington,  the  enemy  were  puzzled  to  guess  in 
what  direction  would  be  our  next  advance — whe 
ther  still  directly  up  the  valley  against  Lynch 
burgh,  or  across  the  Blue  Eidge  to  Charlottesville, 
and  from  thence  across  country  to  join  General 
Grant,  destroying  all  the  railroads  connecting 
Lynchburgh  with  Eichmond  on  our  line  of  march. 
It  was  also  requisite  at  this  point  to  still  further 
strip  the  army  of  all  superfluous  stores  and  equip- 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE   WAK.  321 

merits,  placing  it  in  the  lightest  marching  order, 
as  we  were  substantially  with  a  railroad  terminus 
in  front  of  us  at  Lynchburgh,  and  another  in  our 
rear  at  Rock  Fish  Gap ;  so  that  if  General  Grant 
had  been  repulsed,  of  which  we  heard  many  and 
curiously  circumstantial  accounts,  General  Lee 
could  in  twenty-fbur  hours  have  enveloped  us  with 
veteran  forces  more  numerous  than  our  own,  in 
addition  to  the  troops  we  were  already  contending 
with — and  the  forces  thus  united  would  be  in  com 
munication  with  their  base,  while  we  were  wholly 
cut  off  from  ours,  and  already  beginning  to  run 
short  of  everything  which  our  foraging  parties 
could  not  hunt  up  and  bring  in  from  the  sur 
rounding  country. 

For  these  considerations,  and  in  order  to  destroy 
the  enormous  branch  of  the  Tredegar  Iron  Works, 
then  in  full  activity  at  Buchanan,  General  Hunter 
decided  not  to  move  directly  up  the  valley  against 
Lynchburgh,  but  to  cross  the  James  at  Buchanan, 
thence  strike  for  the  town  of  Liberty  on  the  Vir 
ginia  and  East  Tennessee  railroad,  and  so  approach 
Lynchburgh  on  the  south-west  side,  which  was 
reported  to  be  the  side  least  heavily  fortified. 
This  would  still  keep  open  to  us,  if  unsuccessful 
before  our  objective  point,  or  forced  to  withdraw 
under  pressure  of  superior  numbers,  two  lines  of 
retreat :  one  northward  across  the  Alleghanies,  and 
via  the  Kanawha  to  Parkersburgh  on  the  Ohio ; 
14* 


322  RECOLLECTIONS   OF  THE  WAR. 

the  other  towards  East  Tennessee,  destroying  the 
great  salt  works  near  Salem,  of  such  vital  import 
ance  to  the  rebels,  as  we  passed.  To  retreat  down 
the  Shenandoah  from  Lynchburgh,  as  we  had 
come  up,  would  have  been  simply  absurd  and  im 
possible—the  country  being  thoroughly  eaten  out, 
for  one  reason,  and  the  railroad  on  the  east  side  of 
the  Blue  Kidge,  running  from  Lynchburgh  to 
Waynesboro',  oifering  to  whatever  force  might  be 
able  to  repulse  us  the  means  of  intercepting  our 
retreat  in  the  strong  positions  afforded  by  Stanton 
and  its  surrounding  hills  and  earthworks. 

BUCHANAN  AND  ITS  FOUNDRIES. 

Starting  from  Lexington  on  the  morning  of  the 
14th,  and  driving  the  routed  valley-forces  easily 
before  us,  we  entered  Buchanan  that  evening,  and 
had  much  trouble  in  saving  the  town  from  a  con 
flagration  which  McCausland's  retreating  and 
demoralized  forces  had  left  behind  them  as  a  sou 
venir.  Here  a  vast  branch  of  the  Tredegar  Iron 
"Works,  owned  by  Gen.  Anderson,  together  with 
many  other  furnaces  and  foundries  casting  shot, 
shell,  and  ordnance  for  General  Lee,  was  de 
stroyed;  and  next  day,  though  with  severe  diffi 
culties,  and  at  a  great  expense  of  pioneering  labor 
and  bush-fighting,  our  column  crossed  the  Blue 
Kidge  between  the  shadows  of  the  Peaks  of  Otter 


RECOLLECTIONS   OF   THE    WAR.  323 

— the  narrow  road  over  which  we  trailed  in  ser 
pent-fashion  looking  down  continually  over  pre 
cipices  of  from  five  to  fifteen  hundred  feet  in 
depth,  while  immediately  above  us  towered  the 
highest  and  sharpest  of  the  Otter  peaks — forming 
the  loftiest  point  of  the  Blue  Eidge  Range — clothed 
with  dense  timber  and  undergrowth  to  within  some 
two  hundred  feet  of  its  topmost  pinnacle. 

At  Buchanan  we  captured,  amongst  other  pri 
soners,  Colonel  Angus  McDonald,  formerly  of  the 
Union  army — a  cruel  and  hoary-headed  rebel  com 
missary,  who  had  caused  the  death  of  Colonel 
Strother's  father  by  arresting  that  gallant  old 
patriot  for  his  avowed  Unionism,  and  casting  him 
— an  old  man  over  seventy  years  of  age,  with 
whom  his  tormentor  had  previously  held  most 
friendly  social  relations — into  a  dark  cellar-cell  in 
the  common  jail  of  Martinsburg,  there  to  languish 
on  damp  straw  for  a  few  days,  until  death  put  an 
end  to  his  life  and  miseries  together.  "  I  can  only 
regret  my  civilization,"  said  the  Colonel,  when 
the  capture  of  this  miscreant  was  announced. 
"  Just  for  this  one  morning,  Miles,  I  should  like 
to  be  a  Camanche  or  Sioux  Indian,  and  have  their 
privilege  of  vengeance."  Not  being  a  Camanche 
but  a  gentleman,  however,  he  took  no  other  notice 
of  the  prisoner  than  to  see  that  he  was  no  better 
and  no  worse  treated  than  his  fellow-captives  of 
higher  and  lower  rank. 


324  RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR. 


THE   BLUE  RIDGE  AND  ITS  BEAUTIES. 

From  the  peaks  of  Otter  the  view  over  "the 
Piedmont  of  Virginia,"  as  it  is  called,  can  nowhere 
be  surpassed  on  this  continent — perhaps  not  in  the 
world.  The  lessening  hills  of  the  Blue  Ridge, 
with  many  a  lovely  valley  and  brawling  stream 
between,  roll  downward  from  our  feet  in  woody 
and  billowy  undulations,  ever  diminishing  until 
they  merge  and  fade  away  in  the  noble  champagne 
country  beyond,  dotted  with  still  handsome  villas 
and  farm-houses  that  were  both  happy  and  pros 
perous  before  the  war. 

In  our  upward  march  that  day  the  obstructions 
left  behind  by  the  enemy  had  been  of  the  most 
annoying  nature.  At  every  five  hundred  yards  a 
few  strokes  of  the  axe  would  drop  enormous  trees 
across  the  narrow  road,  scarcely  wide  enough  to 
prop  both  wheels  of  a  wagon  ;  while  at  turning- 
points,  or  other  places  offering  natural  facilities 
for  such  work,  this  narrow  and  precipice-sided 
causeway  would  be  either  cut  away  altogether  or 
blown  up  with  gunpowder,  leaving  us  no  alterna 
tive  but  to  rebuild  the  same  before  proceeding. 
It  was  not  without  severe  bushwhacking  and  the 
loss  of  many  wagons  and  ambulances  that  this 
march  was  accomplished — the  mules  and  horses 
frequently  becoming  restive,  either  from  harness- 
chafing  or  some  other  irritant ;  and  in  such  cases, 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR.  325 

where  the  drivers  were  not  particularly  nimble 
and  steady,  wagon  and  mules,  or  ambulances  and 
horses,  would  go  crashing  down  over  the  yawning 
chasms  on  our  left,  until  either  shattered  and 
stopped  against  some  trees,  or  rent  into  insignifi 
cant  fragments  by  the  downward  process  of  at 
trition. 

Despite  all  these  annoyances,  however,  the  view 
from  the  signal-station  overlooking  the  Piedmont 
of  Virginia  was  one  that  can  never  fade  from 
recollection.  Beautiful  little  farms  in  the  vales 
between  the  spurs  of  the  hills,  nestling  beneath 
us  in  frightened  silence — so  many  doves  with  the 
hawks  swooping  in  circles  over  their  helpless 
heads.  Beautiful  sunlight  patches  floating  over 
the  massive  and  varying  verdures  of  the  moun 
tains  ;  clear  springs  bubbling  out  from  beneath 
every  moss-grown  rock;  rich  flowers  shedding 
brilliancy  and  perfume  even  from  the  topmost 
cliffs ;  and  dense  woods  of  unmatchable  shadow 
and  stateliest  growth  giving  the  coolness  and 
repose  of  perpetual  twilight,  even  in  the  noon 
and  glare  of  that  toilsome  summer  day. 

PREFACE  TO  A  SKETCH. 

And  now,  before  describing  our  descent  on  the 
Virginia  and  Tennessee  railroad  at  Liberty ;  the 
two  days  of  engagement  in  front  of  Lynchburg ; 


326  RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE   WAR. 

the  subsequent  actions  at  Liberty  and  Salem,  and 
the  arduous  withdrawal  of  our  nearly  starving 
and  ammunitionless  forces  across  the  sterile  tract  of 
the  Catawba  and  other  mountain  ranges  of  the 
Alleghanies,  our  route  leading  us  through  the 
famous  Sweet,  and  White,  and  Bed  Sulphur 
Springs  of  the  Kanawha,  and  past  the  Hawk's 
Nest,  that  loveliest  and  most  unique  of  all  the 
views  in  this  region  of  rugged  beauty — perhaps 
the  writer  may  be  pardoned  a  digression  in  order 
to  answer  the  many  inquiries  that  have  from  time 
to  time  been  addressed  to  him  in  regard  to  the 
character  and  calibre  of  the  remarkable  officer 
who  was  the  leader  and  supporting  strength  of 
this  daring  and  most  exhaustive  expedition — 
his  inflexible  will  seeming  to  supply  continued 
energy  and  endurance  to  his  whole  command,  and 
his  soldiers  being  cheered  by  witnessing  a  veteran 
of  sixty  sharing  all  their  privations,  under 
going  more  than  their  share  of  labors,  and  appa 
rently  becoming  fresher,  hardier,  and  more  light- 
spirited  the  more  our  prospects  darkened,  and  the 
more  lofty  and  unending  appeared  the  hills  we 
had  to  cross  before  either  food  or  respite  could  be 
gained. 

It  is  of  Gen.  David  Hunter  the  writer  desires  to 
say  some  few  words — words,  indeed,  essential  to 
a  full  comprehension  of  this  hurried  narrative, 
and  also  designed  to  quiet  the  many  of  his  Demo- 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF   THE  WAR.  327 

cratic  friends  who  continually  do  cry,  but  not  like 
the  Seraphim  and  Cherubim  :  "  What  could  you 
have  seen  in  such  a  leader  to  excite  your  admi 
ration  ?  And  why  do  you  embarrass  yourself  by 
supporting  one  against  whom  so  large  a  part  of 
the  public  stand  arrayed,  either  from  judgment 
or  prejudice?" 

GENERAL    DAVID    HUNTER. — WHO    HE    IS    AND 
WHAT? 

To  the  questions  thus  roughly  embodied,  we 
now  answer  collectively  and  in  writing,  as  we 
have  grown  weary  of  answering  verbally  and 
separately,  that  in  our  whole  experience  of  human 
nature — and  it  has  been  considerably  varied — the 
purest,  gentlest,  bravest,  and  most  honest  gentle 
man  we  have  ever  had  the  means  of  knowing 
thoroughly,  is  the  officer  in  question.  Too  fear 
less  and  sincere  to  be  politic — too  warm  to  be 
always  wise — too  innately  noble  and  truthful  to 
be  what  is  called  "  successful "  in  these  miserable 
latter-days  of  intrigue  and  fraud — David  Hunter 
yet  lives  in  our  memory,  and  must  while  memory 
lasts,  as  a  character  so  free  from  any  vice,  so 
incapable  of  any  baseness,  that  we  have  often 
thought  four  years  of  life  not  wasted,  if  only  for 
enabling  us  by  their  experience  to  realize  that 
such  a  manhood  as  his  was  yet  possible  in  this 
soiled  and  dusty  world. 


828  RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR. 

"  Hunter  is  the  noblest  of  all  noble  fellows," 
remarked  Fleet- Cap  tain  Eamon  Eogers  one  day 
(during  an  interview,  by  the  way,  in  which  he 
and  the  writer  were  endeavoring  to  prevent  a 
personal  collision  between  Admiral  Du  Pont  and 
"  Uncle  David  " — both  of  sensitive  and  choleric 
tempers).  "  He  is  both  gentle  and  fierce,"  conti 
nued  Kogers,  "if  you  can  reconcile  that  contra 
diction  of  terms  ;  and  there  can  be  no  finer  mettle 
for  any  soldier."  Of  course,  with  this  spirit  on 
the  part  of  the  officer  representing  Du  Pont,  and 
an  equally  sincere  admiration  of  the  Admiral  on 
the  part  of  the  officer  representing  Hunter,  nego 
tiations  on  the  point  of  difficulty  were  quickly 
adjusted ;  and  thus  the  only  breeze  that  ever 
ruffled,  or  even  threatened  to  ruffle,  the  otherwise 
invariably  pleasant  relations  of  Army  headquar 
ters  and  the  Kavy  flag-ship  in  the  Department 
of  the  South,  faded  away,  leaving  the  surface  of 
conjoint  operations  as  bright  and  cloudless  as 
before. 

General  Hunter  is  a  soldier — not  a  politician, 
not  a  writer,  not  a  controversialist,  not  a  lawyer ; 
and  as  a  soldier  should  be  judged.  He  served 
over  thirty  years,  in  the  saddle  and  on  the  fron 
tier,  as  captain  of  dragoons ;  nor  is  there  an  In 
dian  tribe  from  the  Canadian  line  to  Mexico  that 
has  not  its  own  stories  of  his  rule,  and  with  whose 
habits  and  temperament  he  is  not  familiar.  He 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR.  329 

was  in  command  of  Fort  Leavenworth  and  the 
Indian  Territories  nearly  forty  years  ago ;  served 
on  the  staff  of  General  Taylor  as  chief  paymaster, 
and  was  his  confidential  officer  during  the  whole 
Mexican  war;  fought  several  duels  during  his 
first  year  in  the  army,  and  was  once  dismissed  for 
having  challenged  his  superior  officer,  Colonel 
Snelling — being  subsequently  restored  to  the  ser 
vice  by  President  Adams,  in  an  order  of  high 
compliment,  very  damaging  to  Colonel  Snelling, 
and  one  of  the  most  remarkable  General  Orders 
ever  seen.  Jefferson  Davis  served  many  years 
under  him  as  Adjutant  of  the  First  Dragoons, 
while  Hunter  was  Captain  commanding;  and 
"  Black  David  Hunter,"  as  his  West  Point  com 
panions  called  him  from  boyhood,  and  General 
Nathaniel  Lyon,  were  about  the  only  two  avowed 
anti -slavery  officers  in  the  army  previous  to  the 
breaking  out  of  the  late  rebellion.  Both  had 
gone  to  Kansas  as  tolerators,  if  not  supporters  of 
slavery ;  and  both  had  been  there  converted  to 
the  anti-slavery  faith  by  witnessing  the  atrocities 
of  the  Border  Euffians  from  Platte  and  Doniphan 
counties  in  Missouri,  the  frauds  of  Sheriff  "  Can- 
dlebox  "  Calhoun,  and  the  open  prostitution  of 
all  President  Pierce's  and  Buchanan's  power  to 
coerce  the  reluctant  residents  of  that  Territory  to 
accept  a  slaveholding  constitution. 

In  appearance  and  physique,  General  Hunter 


330  RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR. 

is  a  most  remarkable  illustration  of  how  far  and 
how  long  the  good  habits  of  a  lifetime  can  pre 
serve  high  spirits,  virility,  and  vigor.  Standing 
about  five  feet  eight  inches  high,  his  shoulders  are 
broad  and  powerful,  his  chest  deep,  and  his  limbs 
still  sinewy  and  active.  Swarthy  and  Indian-like 
both  in  complexion  and  of  feature,  his  grey  eyes 
dilate  into  blackness  and  brilliancy  under  excite 
ment  ;  his  nostrils  expand,  while  his  lips  are  com 
pressed  tightly  together  under  their  curling  mous 
tache  ;  and,  taking  him  for  all  in  all — not  for 
getting  his  perfect  horsemanship — if  there  be  any 
finer  ideal  of  a  veteran  soldier  the  writer  has 
never  seen  it,  not  even  excepting  Generals 
Hooker,  Sheridan,  or  Hancock. 

Not  a  Puritan,  though  of  deeply  religious 
convictions ;  not  a  strait-laced  nor  jaundiced 
moralist  in  judging  those  faults  in  others  from 
which  he  has  been  free  himself;  one  to  whose 
lips  a  single  phrase  of  profanity  is  as  impossible 
as  one  of  falsehood ;  one  whose  still  white  and 
perfect  teeth  give  evidence  of  a  stomach  never 
disarranged  by  strong  potations,  a  mouth  never 
misused  as  a  receptacle  for  tobacco  or  its  fumes ; 
able  to  share  and  even  enjoy  the  roughest  food 
and  severest  privations  of  the  humblest  private 
soldier  under  his  command,  although  noted  in 
civilized  life  for  good-living  and  a  generous  hos 
pitality  ;  a  pliant  wrist  for  the  sabre  exercise,  a 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR.  331 

steady  finger  on  the  trigger ;  eyes  of  the  farthest 
and  keenest  vision  after  sixty  years  of  use 
that  we  have  ever  known ;  a  heart  overflowing 
with  kindliness,  though  liable  to  sudden  fits  of 
rage ;  always  with  a  tendency  to  s;de  with  the 
"  under-dog  "  in  every  fight, — misfortune  and 
helplessness  appearing  to  have  the  same  attrac 
tions  for  his  chivalrous  nature  that  success  and 
strength  have  for  men  of  more  worldly  and  pru 
dent  characters  ;  endowed  with  an  utter  scorn  of 
expediency,  when  opposed  to  his  convictions  of 
principle ;  and  with  a  pride  of  character  which 
can  neither  be  purchased,  bullied,  nor  cajoled  into 
anything  which  his  judgment  or  prejudice  may 
regard  as  of  questionable  integrity, — such  is 
Major-Greneral  David  Hunter,  as  he  was  revealed 
to  us  in  personal  relationship  and  by  correspond 
ence,  during  a  vicarious  but  most  intimate  asso 
ciation  of  over  three  years — the  writer  during 
about  one-half  of  that  time  serving  on  his  staff, 
and  when  not  so  serving,  but  on  the  staffs  of 
other  generals,  being  in  the  receipt  of  frequent 
and  confidential  letters  from  his  old  commander. 

This  eulogy  is  warm — the  warmest  and  most 
unreserved  we  have  ever  written — the  roseate  ink 
of  hero-worship  not  often  suiting  the  hard  and 
angular  steel  pens  with  which  faithful  verbo- 
graphs  have  to  be  drawn  in  this  practical  and 
unromantic  age.  That  "  Uncle  David  "  has  many 


832  RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR. 

opinions  wholly  opposed  to  our  own  is  quite  suffi 
ciently  known  ;  that  he,  for  example,  particularly 
disliked  and  distrusted  McClellan,  for  whom  the 
writer  is  proud  to  say  he  voted ;  as  also  that  he  is 
to-day  in  favor  of  extending  the  right  of  suffrage 
to  every  negro  of  the  South,  and  disfranchising 
every  white  man  in  the  least  degree  prominent  on 
the  rebel  side — two  points  with  neither  of  which 
the  writer  can  agree. 

There  are,  however,  so  many  to  find  fault  with 
this  well-abused  gentleman,  and  they  appear  to  do 
their  work  so  heartily,  that  we  feel  the  darker 
side  of  his  picture  stands  in  no  need  of  further 
shadowing  from  our  hands;  while,  should  any 
excuse  be  needed  for  the  unrestrained  and  fervent 
admiration  seeking  brief  embodiment  in  this  hur 
ried  sketch,  let  it  be  found  in  the  fact  that  the  cha 
racter  of  a  loved  and  honored  friend — the  most 
absolutely  pure  gentleman  of  our  entire  acquaint 
ance — has  been  made  systematically  the  prey 
either  of  Southern  traitors,  or  the  meaner  class  of 
their  Northern  allies,  seeking  expression  for  their 
hatred  of  the  Union  by  abusing  one  of  the  Union's 
most  fervent,  if  not  always  wisest,  champions; 
as  also  by  the  time-serving,  vacillating,  cowardly, 
corrupt,  and  shuffling  elements  of  the  Republican 
party,  ever  as  ready  to  surrender  any  honest  leader 
whose  strides  may  have  outstripped  immediate 
party- expediency,  as  they  subsequently  were  to 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR.  383 

adopt  the  inspirations  of  his  honest  genius,  and  to 
claim  credit  for  having  originated  those  very  ideas 
for  the  first  announcement  of  which  the  true 
author  had  been  both  rebuked  and  punished. 

"We  claim  for  Hunter  that  the  most  vital  and 
conquering  ideas  of  our  late  struggle  had  their 
origin  in  his  tent,  and  that  every  forward  step  of 
our  Government  was  but  an  acceptance — often 
slow  and  semi-reluctant — of  some  point  of  policy 
for  which,  on  its  first  promulgation,  said  govern 
ment  had  officially  reprimanded  its  author.  Hun 
ter  first  armed  and  organized  negro  troops.  His 
conduct  was  disapproved  and  his  experimental 
regiment  disbanded  without  the  pay  of  soldiers. 
But  we  have  had  in  the  service  since  then  not  less 
than  two  hundred  thousand  black  men.  Hunter 
declared  that  slavery — only  existing  by  civil  and 
municipal  law — was  "  incompatible  with  martial 
law,"  and  that  slavery,  therefore,  must  cease  in  all 
parts  of  Georgia,  South  Carolina,  and  Florida 
within  the  lines  of  his  command.  This  order  was 
immediately  and  publicly  revoked  by  President 
Lincoln ;  and  yet  within  a  month  after  its  recall, 
out  came  the  first  Decree  of  Emancipation,  cover 
ing  not  only  the  three  States  named,  but  the  en 
tire  South,  with  an  announcement  of  the  self-same 
principle ! 

General  Hunter,  too,  was  the  first  to  declare 
that  rebels  conld  have  no  rights  of  property  which 


33-i  RECOLLECTIONS   OF  THE   WAR. 

loyal  men  were  bound  to  respect,  and  that  our 
armies  should  subsist,  free  of  charge,  upon  any 
country  through  which  they  passed.  For  this, 
though  never  officially  rebuked,  he  was  for  a  long 
time  held  up  to  public  odium — all  the  rebel  and 
rebel-sympathizing  press  denouncing  him  as  a 
"barbarian;"  while  but  few  of  the  Eepublican 
journals  had  the  courage  or  good  heart  to  say  ten 
manly  words  in  defence  of  our  ablest  champion. 
The  same  journals,  however,  "  saw  a  great  light" 
some  short  time  after,  when  the  Confiscation  Bill 
passed  both  Houses  of  Congress  and  received  the 
Presidential  signature. 

Lastly,  let  us  say,  it  was  Hunter  who  introduced 
and  pressed  upon  the  authorities  the  importance 
of  vast  raids  through  the  interior  of  the  Confede 
racy,  in  lieu  of  that  other  policy  of  attacking  the 
rebels  in  their  strongholds  and  precisely  where 
they  invited  and  dared  us  to  assault  their  works ; 
and  here,  without  wishing  to  take  a  leaf  from 
Sherman's  nobly-earned  chaplet,  let  us  only  re 
mark,  in  conclusion,  that  a  programme  similar  to 
William  Tecumseh's  mighty  raid  from  the  south 
west  to  the  Atlantic  was  in  the  hands  of  the  Hon. 
Secretary  of  War  at  least  one  year  before  Sherman 
undertook  or  even  proposed  it — its  first  proposer 
having  been  General  David  Hunter,  and  his  only 
request  in  connexion  therewith,  that  he  might  be 
allowed  to  make  the  experiment,  of  which  he  even 


RECOLLECTIONS   OF   THE  WAR.  335 

then  foretold — as  if  endowed  with  prophecy— 
the  magnificent  and  all  but  bloodless  success  that 
must  immediately  follow. 

And  now,  are  our  many  anxious  Democratic 
friends,  who  have  occasionally  hinted  that  Hunter 
must  have  given  us  "  love-powders,"  any  better 
satisfied?  Or  can  they  now  any  more  clearly 
understand  why  and  how  it  is,  that — without  any 
effort  "  to  fight  an  unpopular  man  into  popular 
ity" — we  refuse  either  to  give  up  or  conceal  our 
deep  and  heartfelt  admiration  of  the  very  noblest 
and  purest  gentleman  upon  whose  aspect  we  have 
looked  since  the  coffin-lid  was  shut  down  over 
the  cold  face  and  straightened  limbs  of  a  father 
who  sleeps  his  last  sleep  under  the  green  turf  and 
pleasant  dews  of  an  Irish  hillside  ? 

CHAPTER  III. 

THE  SOUTHERN   GUERILLAS. — REALITY  VS. 
ROMANCE. 

FROM  the  Peaks  of  Otter,  through  Fancy  Farm 
to  Liberty,  our  march  was  substantially  unop 
posed,  only  McCausland's  rear-guard  of  guerillas 
under  Mosby,  Gilmer,  and  McNeil,  and  some 
scattering  squadrons  of  Imboden's  cavalry  offer 
ing  any  resistance  ;  and  these  were  quickly  over 
come — in  fact,  never  amounted  to  enough  to  retard 
our  movements.  And  here,  perhaps,  some  few 


336  RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR. 

words  relative  to  those  famed  guerillas  of  the  Vir 
ginia  valleys  may  not  be  out  of  place. 

It  was  the  fashion  in  secession  circles,  down  to 
the  very  closing  of  the  rebellion,  to  magnify  these 
free-lances  of  the  Southern  cause  into  little  less 
than  chivalric  paladins,  or  knights-errant,  all 
mounted  upon  high-mettled  chargers  gorgeously 
caparisoned,  their  persons  sumptuously  clothed 
from  the  spoils  of  a  hundred  forays,  their  swords 
glittering  and  their  revolvers  infallible ;  all  heroes 
sans  peur  et  sans  reproche,  and  each  not  only  able 
and  eager  to  whip,  but  constantly  in  the  habit  of 
whipping,  from  ten  to  a  dozen  of  our  Northern 
mud-sills  in  open  fight. 

We  have  so  few  pleasant  illusions  left  in  con 
nexion  with  the  late  war,  that  nothing  but  a 
strong  sense  of  the  reverence  due  to  the  truth  of 
history  could  induce  us  to  give  another  side  to  this 
picture,  and  paint  these  guerillas,  both  as  they  fell 
under  our  own  observation  and  as  they  were  uni 
formly  described  to  us  by  scores  of  officers  who 
had  served  for  years  against  them  in  the  Shenan- 
doah  and  Kanawha  valleys.  Those  Maryland 
ladies  of  secession  sympathies,  therefore,  who 
crowned  the  "  Noble  Mosby"  and  "  Brave  Harry 
Gilmer"  with  flowers,  while  the  followers  of  those 
illustrious  chiefs  were  rifling  trunks  and  picking 
pockets  on  the  train  between  Baltimore  and  Wash 
ington,  had  better,  perhaps,  for  their  own  peace 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR.  337 

of  mind,  skip  the  following  paragraph;  as  we 
mean  it  to  be  the  simple  truth  told  in  language  as 
plain  as  common  decency  and  the  respect  due  to 
vanquished  foes  will  permit. 

These  guerillas,  then,  we  say,  as  they  appeared 
in  fact,  and  not  in  the  rhapsodical  letters  of  such 
correspondents  as  "Druid,"  of  the  World,  were 
about  the  filthiest,  drunkenest,  meanest,  most  ill- 
looking,  ragged,  mutinous,  diseased,  undisciplined, 
lousy,  and  utterly  cowardly  gang  of  horse  and 
chicken-thieves,  highway  robbers,  grand  and  petty 
larcenists,  that  the  Lord,  for  some  inscrutable  pur 
pose — probably  to  punish  rebellion  by  a  stick  of 
its  own  growth  and  cutting — ever  permitted  to 
disgrace  the  noble  calling  of  the  soldier,  or  the 
fair  surface  of  American  soil,  to  which  neither 
thieves  nor  cowards  appear  indigenous  in  any 
extended  degree.  They  were  terrible,  indeed,  to 
the  stampeded  muleteers,  sutlers,  and  camp-fol 
lowers  of  some  unprotected  train ;  but  still  more 
terrible  to  the  wretched  residents  of  their  own 
section  in  the  regions  through  which  they  ope 
rated. 

As  to  standing  up  in  fair  fight,  however,  before 
any  body  of  our  troops,  well-officered  and  even 
half  so  numerous  as  themselves,  the  thing  was  out 
of  the  question,  and  they  never  tried  it.  If  a 
report  came  in  that  Mosby,  or  Gilmer,  or  McNeil 
were  hidden  at  any  gap  in  the  mountains,  waiting 
15 


338  RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR. 

for  our  troops  to  pass  that  they  might  swoop  down 
without  fear  of  molestation  on  our  exposed  train 
and  sutler-wagons,  the  orders  given  to  the  famous 
Captain  Blazer  of  West  Virginia;  or  Captain 
Prendergast  (since  killed),  of  the  1st  New  York 
cavalry ;  or  Major  Timothy  Quinn,  of  the  same 
regiment ;  or  that  most  dashing  of  all  our  young 
cavalry  officers,  Captain  Berry ;  or  Captain  Elli- 
cott,  of  the  Scouts,  would  be  :  "  Take  a  company, 
or  squadron,  or  platoon  of  your  men,  about  so 
many" — never  assigning  for  this  duty  more  than 
one-third  or  one-fourth  of  what  the  guerilla 
strength  was  reported  to  be — "  and  go  chase  those 
scallywags  over  the  mountains  until  our  train  has 
got  well  up."  And  chased  in  this  manner  they 
were,  and  always  allowed  themselves  to  be,  with 
out  offering  any  soldierly  resistance  whenever  and 
wherever  our  troops  in  pursuit,  if  even  decently 
officered,  were  one-third  as  numerous  as  them 
selves.  This,  however,  is  a  digression;  and  now 
to  return  to  our  lost  sheep,  from  these  rank-smell 
ing,  cowardly,  and  thievish  mountain-goats. 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR.  339 


DESTROYING  RAILROAD  TRACKS  AS  ONE     OF  THE 

"EXACT  SCIENCES." 

At  Liberty  we  struck  the  Virginia  and  East  Ten 
nessee  railroad,  running  south-east  from  Lynch- 
burgh  to  Salem,  and  thence  via  Wytheville  and 
Abingdon  into  the  north-eastern  section  of  that 
State  which  contains  the  grave  of  Andrew  Jackson 
and  the  birth-place  of  Jackson's  illustrious  succes 
sor  and  fellow-confessor,  President  Andrew  John 
son.  It  was  a  sight,  indeed,  worth  going  far  to 
see — though  one,  we  trust,  never  to  be  repeated  in 
the  history  of  this  country — Crook's  veteran  infan 
try,  consisting  of  twelve  West  Virginia  regiments, 
all  hurrying  to  the  work  of  destruction  on  that 
road,  with  the  same  delighted  hum  and  buzz  that 
we  hear  from  a  young  swarm  of  wandering  bees 
when  they  settle  down  on  the  white  and  well- 
sugared  table-cloth  which  the  careful  farmer  has 
spread  for  their  detention.  Up  went  the  rails  for 
miles  and  miles  along  the  road  ;  soon  the  ties  were 
gathered  in  separate  piles  and  set  on  fire;  next 
the  rails  were  laid  across  these  blazing  bonfires, 
taking  care  to  have  the  centre  of  each  rail  above 
the  burning  pile ;  and  then,  when  the  iron  at  a 
white  heat  was  soft  and  ductile,  one  or  more  sol 
diers  at  each  end  would  seize  the  cold  extremity 
of  each  rail-bar,  rush  with  it  to  the  nearest  tree, 
bringing  the  heated  part  against  the  trunk,  and 


340  RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR. 

twist  the  writhing  metal  into  rings  or  semicircles, 
or  true-lovers' -knots,  as  best  pleased  their  fancy. 
The  torch  would  then  be  applied  to  all  trestle- 
work  bridges  along  the  line,  while  bridges  of  stone 
or  iron  would  be  u  sent  kiting  "  by  gunpowder. 

It  was  the  illustrious  Stonewall  Jackson  who 
first  invented  and  taught  our  boys  how  to  destroy 
a  railroad  scientifically  and  thoroughly ;  but  the 
scholars  soon  improved  on  their  teacher ;  and  in 
the  veterans  of  Crook's  division — all  infantry,  for 
cavalry  are  but  hasty  hands  at  such  a  workmanlike 
business — he  had  pupils  of  whom  any  master  could 
have  found  no  reason  to  be  ashamed.  It  was, 
indeed,  surprising— the  pleasure  taken  by  our  foot 
soldiers  in  this  species  of  labor.  Whether,  if 
Lavater  or  Mr.  Fowler  had  examined  the  rank 
and  file  of  our  armies,  either  would  have  pro 
nounced  the  bump  of  destructiveness  unusually 
developed  in  our  men,  or  not,  we  have  no  means 
of  judging ;  but  of  this  fact  we  are  sure  :  that  no 
matter  how  long  the  march,  how  hot  the  day,  how 
short  the  rations  or  water,  how  imminent  and 
menacing  soever  might  be  the  enemy's  movements 
— the  very  moment  our  infantry  struck  a  railroad 
their  fatigue,  thirst,  hunger,  and  sense  of  danger 
all  seemed  to  fall  from  them  with  their  dropping 
knapsacks ;  and  they  buckled  down  to  the  busi 
ness  of  rendering  that  line  of  transportation  of  no 
further  avail  to  the  enemy  for  at  least  some. 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR.  341 

months,  with  all  the  eager,  joyous,  and  untiring 
energy  of  a  flock  of  school-boys  pelting  snowballs 
at  some  detested  usher. 

ON  TO  LYNCHBURG-  !     THE  MINERAL  WEALTH  OF 

THIS  SECTION. 

Marching  from  Liberty  towards  Lynchburgh 
along  this  line  of  railroad,  and  destroying  it  as  we 
advanced,  the  indications  became  every  hour  more 
clear  that  General  Lee  had  begun  to  pour  down 
heavy  reinforcements  against  us  by  the  Lynch 
burgh  and  Eichmond  railroad,  which  General 
Duffle's  cavalry  column  had  been  dispatched  to 
destroy — a  mission  it  had  not  been  able  to  fulfil. 
At  New  London  our  friends  in  grey  first  showed 
in  line  of  battle  since  Piedmont,  but  made  no 
determined  stand  there — Averell's  cavalry  deve 
loping  to  feel  and  drive  them,  while  Sullivan's 
infantry  demonstrated  as  if  for  a  direct  attack,  and 
Crook  sought  to  wheel  round  on  their  right  flank 
and  rear — a  movement  only  thwarted  by  their 
withdrawal  after  some  few  hours  of  rather  heavy 
but  desultory  fighting.  We  halted  that  night  on 
the  Big  Otter,  and  had  headquarters  at  a  house 
alleged  to  be  haunted — a  large,  and  once  hand 
some,  but  now  deserted  red  brick  dwelling,  of 
which  the  negroes  in  the  vicinity  told  some  tales 
that  Mrs.  Crowe  might  have  been  glad  to  gather 


342  RECOLLECTIONS   OF  THE  WAR. 

for  any  new  edition  of  that  banquet  of  ghostly 
horrors — her  "  Night-side  of  Nature."  It  is  at 
New  London  that  the  famous  Alum-spring  throws 
up  its  mineral  and  healing  treasures  ;  and  indeed, 
many,  if  not  most  of  the  springs  in  this  part  of  the 
country,  are  more  or  less  strongly  tinctured  with 
the  same  astringent  chemical.  Perhaps,  in  the 
new  development  of  wealth  which  awaits  this 
entire  section,  the  alum  bed,  which  evidently 
underlies  the  fertile  surface  for  a  distance  of  many 
square  miles,  may  play  no  inconspicuous  part. 
It  was  not  far  from  here  that  the  house  of  a  Mr. 
Mosby  was  burned — he  being  some  kind  of  a 
cousin  to  Mosby  the  guerilla,  and  the  bodies  of 
two  of  our  men,  treacherously  shot  in  cold  blood 
in  his  yard  as  they  were  drawing  water  from  his 
well,  attesting  that  he  was  not  unworthy  to  claim 
kinship  with  his  bushwhacking  relative. 


Next  day,  the  17th  of  June,  we  started  at  ear 
liest  daylight  in  the  direction  of  Lynchburgh,  our 
way  lying  through  a  country  more  densely  covered 
and  obstructed  by  wood  and  underbrush  than  any 
we  had  yet  seen.  The  roads  were  our  only 
resource,  even  the  skirmishers  failing  to  make 
more  than  slow  headway  through  the  timber  on 
either  hand  of  them,  and  our  advance  being  con- 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR.  343 

sequently  much  delayed.  Meantime,  the  enemy 
were  not  inattentive  to  our  operations,  their  light 
batteries  and  sharpshooters  incessantly  annoying 
the  heads  of  our  various  columns  ;  and  their  skir 
mishers  keeping  up  a  continual  crackle  of  mus 
ketry  from  behind  the  trees  in  the  vicinity  of  our 
advance-guard  and  pioneers. 

It  was  therefore  not  until  about  two  in  the 
afternoon  that  we  came  upon  their  first  line  of 
irregular  rifle-pits  and  rail-fence  barricades,  at  a 
place  variously  styled  by  the  negroes  Diamond 
Hill,  or  the  Old  Stone  Church;  and  here  they 
succeeded  in  holding  us  until  about  eight  P.M.  that 
evening,  when  they  were  finally  broken  by  a  dash 
in  of  Averell's  cavalry  upon  their  right,  and  a 
splendid  charge  of  Crook's  infantry,  under  a  heavy 
fire  of  grape,  across  some  open  fields  and  over 
their  defences — the  West  Virginia  boys  clearing 
the  rebel  barricades  with  a  vault,  and  using  their 
clubbed  muskets  and  bayonets  in  close  quarters. 

Here,  and  at  this  moment,  the  rout  of  our 
grey-back  friends  became  suddenly  complete — 
two  guns,  four  or  five  caissons,  and  many  hun 
dred  prisoners  falling  into  our  hands ;  and  had  it 
not  been  for  the  rapid  coming  on  of  night,  and 
the  necessity  of  removing  our  own  and  the  ene 
my's  wounded  out  of  the  woods,  which  had 
caught  fire  during  the  action,  and  were  now  burn 
ing  fiercely  with  a  mighty  crackling  and  roar, 


344  RECOLLECTION'S  OF  THE  WAR. 

only  pierced  by  the  terror-stricken  screams  of  the 
mangled  men  who  lay  beneath  the  flaming  canopy 
of  leaves  and  branches — we  might  have  pushed 
on  into  Lynchburgh  that  night,  for  as  yet  not  more 
than  a  third  of  Early's  corps  (formerly  Ewell's) 
had  joined  the  forces  under  McCausland,  and 
these  were  again  as  utterly  beaten  and  demoralized 
as  they  had  been  on  the  fifth  of  the  month,  pre 
vious  to  our  having  been  joined  by  Crook  and 
Averell  from  the  Kanawha. 

BELLIGERENT  RELATIVES. — A  TRUE  SOUTHERN 
BELLE. 

That  night  we  lay  in  line  of  battle  before  the 
enemy's  second  and  main  line  of  works  for  the 
defence  of  Lynchburgh,  on  the  south-eastern  side 
— two  powerful  and  regular  earthwork  forts, 
carefully  built  in  1861  and  mounted  with  siege 
artillery  crowning  the  slopes  in  front  of  us  ;  and 
a  regular  chain  of  heavy  rifle-pits  connecting 
these  two  together,  and  running  off  beyond  them 
to  join  yet  other  regular  forts  on  right  and  left. 
Our  headquarters  that  night  were  at  the  beautiful 
residence  of  an  aged  gentleman  named  Hutter, 
formerly  a  major  and  paymaster  in  the  United 
States  army,  and  some  kind  of  distant  relative  to 
General  Hunter — as,  by  the  way,  in  some  degree 
of  cousinship,  more  or  less  remote,  were  pretty 
nearly  all  the  good  families  whose  barns  we  had 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE   WAR.  345 

been  emptying,  and  whose  cattle  we  had  been 
eating  and  driving  off  during  the  entire  march. 
Indeed  it  was  often  ludicrously,  though  painfully 
amusing,  to  hear  Colonel  David  Hunter  Strother 
("Porte  Crayon"),  or  the  old  General  himself, 
inquiring  anxiously  after  the  health  of  "  Cousin 
Kitty,"  "  Aunt  Sallie,"  "  Cousin  Joe,"  or  "Uncle 
Bob,"  from  some  nice  old  Virginia  lady  with 
smoothed  apron,  silver  spectacles,  and  in  tears,  or 
some  pretty  young  rebel  beauty  in  homespun, 
without  hoops  and  in  a  towering  passion, — our 
soldiers  meanwhile  cleaning  out  smoke-houses  and 
granaries  by  wholesale ;  and  the  end  of  the  con 
versation,  as  the  affectionate  though  politically 
sundered  relatives  parted,  usually  finding  those 
of  the  rebel  side  without  a  week's  food  in  the 
house,  without  a  single  slave  to  do  their  bidding, 
and  with  horses,  cattle,  sheep,  bacon,  pigs,  poul 
try,  and  so  forth,  things  only  to  be  recalled  in 
ecstatic  dreams. 

This  Major  Hutter  "had  one  only  daughter, 
the  divine  " — but  her  name  escaped  us.  For  the 
inexpressible  sweetness  of  her  pure  silvery  voice 
and  exquisite  repose  of  manner,  however,  the 
lady's  image  is  yet  a  thing  of  vivid  force  in  our 
faithful  memory — her  eyes  shedding  no  tear  as 
she  saw  in  that  hour  of  the  gloaming,  all  the 
refined  surroundings  of  a  costly  and  luxurious 

home  swept  into  ruin ;  and  her  cheek  blanching 
15* 


346  EECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR. 

no  shade  of  its  clear  olive-pink,  though  aware 
that  with  the  earliest  dawn  the  heretofore  splendid 
and  happy  home  of  her  childhood — the  shrine  to 
which,  we  have  no  doubt,  proud  wooers  must 
have  come  from  far  and  near  to  court  the  sun 
shine  of  her  smile — would  in  all  human  proba 
bility  become  the  central  position  for  which  two 
infuriate  armies  must  contend.  "  Oh,  how  I  pray 
for  peace,"  she  exclaimed,  as  we  opened  a  blind 
in  the  drawing-room  (metamorphosed  the  preced 
ing  night  into  an  Adjutant-General's  office),  to 
see  if  the  east  yet  gave  any  signs  of  dawn.  "  Do 
not  misunderstand  me,  however,"  she  continued, 
in  that  silvery  voice  of  inextinguishable  sweet 
ness.  "  Do  not  think  I  crave,  or  would  accept, 
that  peace  you  talk  about — the  peace  of  subjuga 
tion  ;  for  I  am  Southern  in  every  fibre;"  and  her 
bright  eyes  kindled  brighter,  her  cheek  took  a 
deeper  flush,  and  her  musical  voice  swept  upward 
into  a  yet  higher  treble  as  if  to  give  assurance 
of  her  faith.  "  This  dress  I  wear " — a  plain 
grey  homespun,  but  made  beautiful  by  the  wo 
manhood  it  covered—"  I  have  carded,  and  spun, 
and  cut  out,  and  put  together  with  my  own 
hands.  Oh,  we  have  given  up  everything  for  the 
cause,  save  the  barest  necessaries  of  life;  and  I 
cannot  believe  that  God  would  allow  a  people  to 
suffer  so  much  as  we  have  doae,  if  not  intending 
to  reward  us  with  final  victory." 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR.  347 

SECOND  DAY'S  ENGAGEMENT  BEFORE  LYNCH- 
BURGH. 

Next  morning,  at  daylight,  the  skirmishers 
began  amusing  each  other,  and  by  seven  o'clock 
the  work  was  lively  >  All  night  long  we  had 
heard  the  incessant  screaming  of  trains  on  the 
Lynchburgh  and  Kichmond  railroad,  as  the  rein 
forcements  sent  by  General  Lee  continued  to 
arrive  in  steady  stream — General  Duffies  attempt, 
made  the  preceding  night,  to  destroy  the  long 
bridge  across  the  James  River,  having  been  de 
feated  by  superior  forces.  Yarious  charges  that 
we  made  up  the  hills  on  which  the  earthworks 
stood  were  'heavily  repulsed — only  part  of  one 
Ohio  regiment  getting  over  their  works,  and  that 
part  remaining  therein — either  from  pride  in  their 
achievement,  or  because  unable  to  fight  their  way 
out  again.  Our  men,  too,  now  began  to  suffer  se 
verely  for  want  of  proper  food — General  Sullivan 
having  reported  the  night  before  that  his  men  were 
then  eating  their  last  rations,  a  piece  of  informa 
tion  which  General  Hunter  answered  by  the  laco 
nic  remark :  "  Tell  them  there  is  plenty  of  food 
in  Lynchburgh."  It  is  true  we  had  yet  with  us 
plenty  of  beef  cattle  collected  as  we  marched 
along,  for  we  had  been  mainly  subsisting  on  the 
country ;  but  from  the  rapid  movements  of  the 
past  few  days,  and  the  activity  all  round  us  of 


348  RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR. 

the  enemy's  cavalry,  we  had  not  been  able  to 
gather  in  any  corn  or  materials  for  making  bread. 
Our  coffee  and  sugar,  too,  were  giving  out — and 
what  are  soldiers  good  for  without  their  coffee  ? 

By  noon  it  became  evident  that  the  enemy's 
forces  were  gaining  a  large  numerical  ascendancy, 
a  continual  stream  of  Early's  corps  flowing  from 
the  railroad  terminus  to  the  scene  of  action,  and 
their  right  flank  beginning  to  overlap  our  left 
with  some  danger  of  turning  it.  It  was  then} 
after  a  brief  consultation  with  Generals  Crook, 
Averell,  and  Sullivan,  that  Hunter  gave  orders 
for  our  trains  to  commence  falling  back  rapidly 
towards  Salem,  on  the  Tennessee  and  Lynchburgh 
railroad  line;  but  of  this — for  the  orders  were 
secret,  and  the  trains  far  in  our  rear — neither  our 
own  soldiers  nor  the  enemy  knew  anything  until 
nightfall,  the  battle  being  thereafter  continued  on 
our  side  with  even  greater  activity,  in  order  to 
cover  this  movement,  and  our  men  believing 
firmly  that  they  were  to  enter  Lynchburgh  as 
conquerors  if  it  cost  them  a  week's  steady  fight 
ing. 

Our  situation,  however,  was  indeed  critical,  and 
fully  justified  the  belief  entertained  both  by 
Generals  Lee  and  Grant,  that  none  of  Hunter's 
expedition  could  return  save  as  prisoners.  We 
were  but  fifteen  or  sixteen  thousand  effective  men 
at  the  outside,  cut  off  from  our  communications, 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR.  849 

rapidly  running  short  of  ammunition,  wholly 
destitute  of  forage  and  rations,  operating  in  a 
country  intensely  hostile  to  us,  with  no  hope  of 
any  reinforcements,  no  hope  of  supplies  nearer 
than  the  far  side  of  the  Alleghanies,  in  presence 
of  an  enemy  already  amounting  to  thirty-two 
thousand  well-supplied  men,  and  at  the  terminus 
of  a  good  railroad  in  working  order,  by  which 
General  Lee  could  have  poured  down  upon  us 
thirty  thousand  more  of  his  veterans,  had  such 
been  his  judgment  or  pleasure.  Back  the  road 
we  had  come  we  could  not  go,  as  the  country  was 
eaten  out,  in  the  first  place ;  as  an  inferior  force 
cannot  collect  supplies  in  presence  of  a  supe 
rior,  even  if  supplies  lay  around  them  as  thick  as 
in  that  mythical  town  whose  roofs  were  of  pan 
cake,  and  through  whose  streets  little  roast  pigs 
ran  crying  out,  "  Come  eat  me ;"  and  lastly,  be 
cause  the  enemy  had  another  good  railroad  from 
Lynchburg  to  Stanton,  or  rather  to  Waynesboro', 
just  twelve  miles  therefrom,  by  means  of  which 
they  could  throw  any  force  they  pleased  across 
our  front,  while  still  pressing  us  in  rear  with 
equal  or  even  stronger  forces. 

These  were  the  considerations  which  caused  the 
order,  issued  secretly  at  noon,  for  our  trains  to 
commence  retreating  toward  Salem;  and  it  was 
doubtless  the  hope  of  "  bagging  us,"  body  and  boots, 
when  his  full  reinforcements  should  have  come 


350  RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR. 

up,  and  when  (as  he  expected)  we  should  com 
mence  to  fall  back  down  the  Shenandoah,  that  in 
duced  Early  not  to  press  us  any  harder  than  he 
did  during  the  balance  of  this  18th  day  of  June, 
1864 — anniversary  of  that  most  memorable  world- 
battle  which  sent  the  first  Napoleon  to  St.  Helena. 
Press  us,  however,  and  rather  heavily,  Gren.  Early 
did  on  several  occasions  that  day — more  especially 
about  3  P.M.,  when,  with  a  charge  over  his  works 
and  down  the  hill,  he  broke  Sullivan's  infantry  on 
our  left,  and  drove  the  gallant  Thoburne's  brigade 
(Thoburne  since  killed),  and  the  brigade  of  Col. 
Wells,  of  Massachusetts  (also  "  dead  on  the  field  of 
honour"),  pell-mell  through  the  woods.  This  dis 
aster,  however,  was  but  of  short  duration,  though 
extremely  threatening  at  one  time,  two  brigades 
from  Crook  in  the  right-centre  reinforcing  our 
left ;  and  the  engagement  after  that  sullenly  set 
tling  down  into  an  artillery  and  skirmishing  duel, 
with  no  charges  though  many  demonstrations,  and 
consequently  no  repulses  or  heavy  losses  upon 
either  side.  Averell's  cavalry  took  no  part  in  it, 
that  officer  wishing  to  keep  his  men  fresh  for  a  raid 
toward  Danville  which  he  projected  under  Hun 
ter's  directions,  but  failed  to  put  in  practice  ;  and 
Duffle's  cavalry  doing  but  little  on  the  extreme 
left,  from  the  woody  and  broken  nature  of  the 
ground,  as  also  from  the  fact  that  there  were 
earthworks  to  contend  against,  and  that  Early's 


EECOLLFOTTONS  OF  THE   WAR.  351 

veteran  infantry  weie  not  the  kind  of  troops  with 
whom  it  would  b?  Qafe  work  for  a  forageless  cav 
alry  to  play  tricks. 

Before  concluding  this  chapter,  we  cannot  for 
bear  inserting  hert>,  though  a  little  out  of  its  place, 
the  brief  and  simple,  yet  how  significant  dispatch, 
in  which  the  great  Lieut.-General  of  our  Armies 
frowned  down  and  quietly  trod  into  the  mire 
under  his  feet  an  attempt  made  in  certain  inter 
ested  quarters  to  make  Hunter  a  scape-goat  for  all 
the  flurry  and  fusf:  of  Gen.  Early 's  subsequent  raid 
into  "Maryland,  My  Maryland,"  and  the  demon 
strations  of  that  bibulous,  one-legged  warrior  in 
front  of  the  walls  of  Washington.  It  was  thus 
wrote  our  good  nnd  gallant  Lieut.-General  at  a 
time  when  attempts  were  being  made  to  blame 
Hunter,  who  was  then  crossing  the  Alleghanies 
with  a  starving  command  and  with  horses  dying  by 
the  thousand  for  waat  of  forage,  for  not  checking 
in  the  Shenandoab  with  his  fourteen  or  fifteen 
thousand  worn,  v,  asted,  shoeless,  and  nearly  am- 
munitionles£  troops,  the  thirty-five  thousand  well- 
supplied  veterans  urder  General  Jubal  Early,  for 
whose  proper  reception  in  Maryland  and  around 
the  District  of  Col'Ambia,  no  proper  provision  had 
been  either  made  or  makable  by  the  authorities : 


352  RECOLLECTIONS  OF   THE  WAR. 

"  HEADQUARTERS,  ARMIES  OF  THE  U.  S., 
CITY  POINT,  YA.,  July  15th,  1864. 
"  Hon.  C.  A.  DANA,  Assist.  Sec.  of  War  : 

"I  am  sorry  to  see  such  a  disposition  to  con 
demn  a  brave  old  soldier,  as  General  Hunter  is 
known  to  be,  without  a  hearing. 

"  He  is  known  to  have  advanced  into  the  ene 
my's  country  towards  their  main  army,  inflicted 
a  much  greater  damage  upon  them  than  they, 
with  double  his  force,  have  inflicted  upon  us,  and 
they  moving  directly  away  from  our  main  army. 

"  Hunter  acted,  too,  in  a  country  where  we  had 
no  friends,  whilst  the  enemy  have  only  operated 
in  territory  where,  to  say  the  least,  many  of  the 
inhabitants  are  their  friends. 

"  If  General  Hunter  has  made  war  on  the  news 
papers*  of  Western  Virginia,  probably  he  has 
done  right. 

"I  fail  to  see  yet  that  General  Hunter  has  not 
acted  with  great  promptness  and  great  success. 
Even  the  enemy  give  him  great  credit  for  courage, 
and  congratulate  themselves  that  he  will  give  them 
a  chance  of  getting  even  with  him. 

"(Signed)        U.  S.  GRANT,  Lieut.- General 
"  Official:  G-EO.  K.  LEET,   A.  A.  Gen." 

*  The  only  newspaper  General  Hunter  suppressed  in  West 
Virginia  was  one  at  Parkersburgh,  the  editor  of  which — a  loyal 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR.  353 

CHAPTER  IY. 
END  OF  THE  EAID. — NOW  FOR  FOOD  AND  SAFETY. 

HUNTER  had  done  a  noble  work  up  the  valley — 
how  noble  did  not  become  known  until  the  cap 
ture  of  the  rebel  archives  showed  that  Early's 
corps  of  thirty  thousand  picked  men,  thrown  upon 
us  finally  by  Lee,  had  been  collected  and  were 
designed  as  a  reinforcement  for  General  Johnson, 
who  was  then  facing  our  Sherman  before  Atlanta 
— a  reinforcement  which,  about  equally  balanced  as 
the  opposing  forces  in  the  south-west  then  were, 
might  very  materially,  and  to  our  detriment,  have 
altered  the  results  in  that  region,  had  Lee's  pri 
mary  intention  been  carried  out. 

But  Hunter's  successful  raid  beyond  the  bar 
rier-lines  of  Mount  Crawford,  never  passed  before 
by  any  Union  army,  nor  ever  afterwards  passed 
until  the  close  of  the  war,  summoned  Lee  to  de 
fend  instantly  and  at  any  cost,  the  valley  whose 
maiden  soil — untrodden  heretofore,  at  least  south 
of  Harrisonburgh — contained,  in  a  very  great 
measure,  the  granary  and  armory  of  the  main 
rebel  army  holding  Grant  in  check  before  Rich 
mond.  The  cloth-mills  to  clothe  his  men,  the 

man — on  being  shown  the  falsity  and  public  injury  of  his  state 
ments,  fully  and  cheerfully  acknowledged  that  he  "had  been 
served  just  right." 


354  RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR. 

flour  mills  to  feed  them,  the  gun-stock  factories, 
shoe-shops,  saddle  and  harness  factories,  the  count 
less  furnaces  and  foundries  from  which  came  the 
main  munitions  for  his  army — ill-able  to  afford 
such  a  loss — all  these  had  been  "  going  up  in  a 
balloon"  incessantly,  with  every  mile  of  our  march 
from  Port  Eepublic  to  Lynchburgh ;  and  it  was, 
indeed,  as  a  picture  of  the  scenes  of  this  raid, 
considered  in  a  generic  light,  and  as  symbolizing 
all  other  raids,  that  the  following  lines  were  sub 
sequently  written  by  our  distinguished  Ex-Orderly, 
in  regard  to  General  Sherman's  yet  more  famous 
march  from  Atlanta  to  the  Atlantic: 


THE  SONG  OF 

A  pillar  of  fire  by  night, 

A  pillar  of  smoke  by  day, 
Some  hours  of  march — then  a  halt  to  fight, 

And  so  we  hold  our  way  ; 
Some  hours  of  march — then  a  halt  to  fight, 
As  on  we  hold  our  way. 


Over  mountain  and  plain  and  stream, 

To  some  bright  Atlantic  bay, 
With  our  arms  aflash  in  the  morning  beam, 

We  hold  our  festal  way  ; 
With  our  arms  aflash  in  the  morning  beam, 
We  hold  our  checkless  way  I 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR.  855 

There  is  terror  wherever  we  come, 
There  !=<  terror  and  wild  dismay 
When  they  see  the  Old  Flag  and  hear  the  drum 

Annour  ?e  us  on  the  way  ; 

When  they  see  the  Old  Flag,  and  hear  the  drum 
Beating  time  to  our  onward  way. 

Never  unlimber  a  gun 

For  thucse  villanous  lines  in  grey, 
Draw  sabres !  and  at  'em  upon  the  run  I 

'Tis  thus  we  clear  our  way 
Draw  sabres  and  soon  you  will  see  them  run, 
As  we  hold  our  conquering  way. 

The  loyal,  who  long  have  been  dumb, 

Are  loud  in  their  cheers  to-day  ; 
And  the  old  mei.  out  on  their  crutches  come, 

To  see  us  hold  our  way ; 
And  the  old  men  out  on  their  crutches  come, 
To  bless  us  on  our  way. 

Around  us  in  rear  and  flanks, 
Their  futile  squadrons  play , 
With  a  sixty-mile  front  of  steady  ranks, 

We  hold  our  checkless  way  ; 
With  a  sixty-mile  front  of  serried  ranks, 
Our  banner  clears  the  way. 

Hear  the  spattering  fire  that  starts 
From  the  woods  and  copses  grey, 
There  is  just  enough  fighting  to  quicken  our  hearts, 

As  we  *Volic  along  the  way ! 
There  is  just  enough  fighting  to  warm  our  hearts, 
As  we  rattle  along  the  way. 


356  RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR. 

Upon  different  roads  abreast 
The  heads  of  our  columns  gay, 
With  fluttering  flags,  all  forward  pressed, 
Hold  on  their  conquering  way. 
With  fluttering  flags  to  victory  pressed, 
We  hold  our  glorious  way. 

Ah,  traitors !  who  bragged  so  bold 

In  the  sad  war's  early  day, 
Did  nothing  predict  you  should  ever  behold 

The  Old  Flag  come  this  way  ? 
Did  nothing  predict  you  should  yet  behold 
Our  banner  come  back  this  way  ? 

By  heaven  !  'tis  a  gala  march, 

'Tis  a  pic-nic  or  a  play ; 
Of  all  our  long  war  'tis  the  crowning  arch, 

Hip,  hip  !  for  Sherman's  way ! 
Of  all  our  long  war  this  crowns  the  arch — 
For  Sherman  and  Grant  hurrah  ! 

THE    RETURN    COMMENCES. — WAS    IT    A    DEFEAT 
OR  VICTORY? 

That  we  could  not  capture  Lynchburgh  became 
very  painfully  evident  during  the  operations  of 
June  18th,  some  details  of  which  were  given  in 
the  preceding  chapter.  Indeed  the  question  now 
to  be  considered — and  with  all  the  odds  heavily 
against  any  answer  in  our  favor — was :  whether 
Lynchburgh  would  not  capture  us  ?  Short  of  am 
munition,  cut  off  by  hundreds  of  miles  and  two 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR.  357 

ranges  of  mountains  from  our  base,  and  wholly 
out  of  supplies  save  a  little  coffee  and  sugar  left 
in  the  train  of  that  excellent  officer,  Major-Gen- 
Greorge  Crook,  we  were  in  presence  of  an  enemy 
already  heavily  superior  to  us  in  numbers,  close  to 
his  main  army,  operating  in  his  own  country,  and 
every  moment  being  farther  reinforced  from  Kich- 
mond,  as  we  could  both  see  and  hear  by  the  trains 
incessantly  arriving,  and  the  steady  stream  of 
troops  hurrying  from  the  railroad  terminus  to  the 
scene  of  action  during  the  torrid  day — day  hot  in 
a  double  sense :  and  neither  pleasant. 

It  was  in  view  of  these  facts,  that  our  trains  had 
been  sent  back  on  the  road  towards  Salem  at 
about  noon  on  the  18th,  although  the  fighting — 
sometimes  furious,  sometimes  desultory  —  conti 
nued  with  but  slight  intermission  until  after  sun 
down  ;  every  possible  demonstration  being  made, 
and  indeed  our  own  soldiers  firmly  believing,  that 
we  meant  to  renew  the  attack  next  morning.  But 
that  night  about  ten  o'clock,  with  our  picket-line 
doubled  and  in  the  strictest  silence,  that  nothing 
might  be  known  of  our  movements,  the  march  of 
our  little  army  away  from  Lynchburgh  and  to 
wards  Salem  began — our  poor  boys  trudging  along 
wearily  enough,  after  a  long  day  of  incessant  con 
flict,  or  preparation  for  conflict ;  and  with  the  de 
pressing  conviction  of  defeat  upon  their  spirits 
which  soldiers  can  never  shake  off  when  failing  to 


358  RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR. 

attain  any  point  against  which  their  efforts — even 
in  a  feint — have  been  directed.  It  may  only  have 
been  a  feint  or  a  diversion  to  the  general,  but  all 
such  matters  are  solemn  verities  to  the  rank  and 
file.  They  knew  they  had  not  been  either  broken 
or  beaten  ;  but  still  they  had  not  entered  Lynch- 
burgh ;  and  this,  therefore,  was  to  them  a  defeat — 
an  opinion  in  which  the  wise  Northern  newspapers 
seemed  fully  to  agree. 

But  was  it  a  defeat?— a  question  only,  but 
easily  to  be  answered  by  referring  to  the  instruc 
tions  under  which  the  expedition  had  been  organ 
ized,  and  the  objective  point  at  which  it  struck. 
The  orders  of  Lieut-General  Grant  to  Hunter,  on 
that  officer's  relieving  Sigel,  we/e  to  the  effect  that 
he  should  "  reorganize  Sigel's  beaten  army,  and 
with  it  readvance  up  the  valley,  demonstrating 
for  the  capture  of  Stanton,  but  not  attacking  it  in 
case  either  the  enemy  or  the  fortifications,  or  both 
together,  should  appear  too  strong ;  in  which  case 
he  was  to  avoid  any  general  engagement,  but  keep 
his  column  moving,  and  find  ^mployment  for  as 
many  of  the  enemy  as  possible,  in  various  direc 
tions." 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR.  359 


11  ONE  OF  THE  MOST  BRILLIANT  AND   IMPORTANT 
SUCCESSES  OF  THE  ENTIRE  WAR." 

This  formed  the  substance,  and  the  whole  sub 
stance,  of  Grant's  original  instructions ;  and  with 
these  data  kept  in  view,  the  public  will  at  once 
perceive  how  much  better  than  he  had  been  or 
dered  to  do,  General  Hunter  did.  He  not  only 
captured  Stanton,  as  the  result  of  the  battle  of 
Piedmont,  but  Lexington,  Buchanan,  Liberty,  and 
all  the  intermediate  towns  from  Port  Kepublic  to 
Lynchburgh — towns  heretofore  inviolable,  and  all 
busily  engaged  in  pouring  eastward  to  Lee  sup 
plies  of  everything  that  commander  required  for 
his  army.  He  had  not  only  employed  all  the  Yal- 
ley  Forces,  but  beaten  them  into  a  disorganized 
rabble ;  and  finally  drew  off  to  check  him  thirty 
thousand  picked  men  of  the  veteran  army  of 
Northern  Virginia  under  General  Early,  who  had 
been  collected  and  were  designed  by  the  rebel 
general-in-chief  for  the  reinforcement  of  General 
Joe  Johnson  before  Atlanta.  He  had  given  to 
the  flames  the  better  half  of  Lee's  commissary, 
quartermaster,  and  ordnance  departments — cer 
tainly  all  of  these  that  lay  between  Harrisonburgh 
and  Lynchburgh ;  and  no  wonder,  knowing  and 
appreciating  the  inestimable  value  of  these  ser 
vices  (as,  it  would  seem,  the  Hon.  Charles  A. 
Dana  did  not),  that  General  Grant  wrote  the  very 


360  KECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR. 

noble  eulogy  of  Hunter's  success  which  was,  for 
the  first  time,  published  in  our  last  chapter. 

As  to  the  alleged  barbarity  of  General  Hunter 
in  "burning  private  houses"  during  this  expedi 
tion,  we  have  already  shown  that  he  burned  but 
five — each  on  a  specific  charge  and  proof  that  its 
owner  was  a  bushwhacker ;  but  what  would  the 
pensive  public  have  thought  had  he  received  in 
time  General  Grant's  subsequent  instructions,  or 
had  he  been  able  to  retreat  down  the  Shenandoah 
on  his  return,  in  which  case  they  would  have  been 
most  faithfully  complied  with?  These  second 
instructions  were — in  order  to  prevent  another 
incursion  by  the  enemy  down  the  valley  into 
Maryland,  such  as  Early  subsequently  made — to 
"  make  the  Shenandoah  a  wilderness  over  which 
the  crow  purposing  to  fly  would  have  to  carry  his 
own  provender  in  his  claws" — orders  afterward 
partly  carried  out  by  Sheridan,  who  never,  how 
ever,  got  up  the  valley  any  further  than  Harrison- 
burgh,  though  a  raiding  party  of  his  cavalry  are 
said  to  have  been  for  some  few  hours  in  Stan  ton. 
So,  also,  Hunter  was  blamed  for  an  order  that 
wherever  any  of  his  men  or  officers  were  assassi 
nated  by  bushwhackers,  the  country  for  five  miles 
around  the  spot  should  be  laid  utterly  waste ;  and 
yet  when  young  Lieut.  Meigs,  of  the  Engineers, 
was  murdered  by  some  roving  miscreants,  the  gal 
lant  Sheridan  caused  that  precise  order  to  be  pre- 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR.  361 

cisely  executed,  and  there  was  general  approval 
through  the  Northern  press;  so  true  is  it  that 
"  one  cat  will  be  praised  for  doing  what  another 
cat  will  be  killed  for  looking  at." 

But  now  to  cast  aside  these  digressions,  and  re 
sume  the  story  of  our  return  from  Lynchburgh  : 

THE  ENEMY  AWAKE  AT  LAST. — ACTIONS  AT  LIBER 
TY  AND  ELSEWHERE. 

So  perfectly  had  our  retrograde  movement  been 
concealed,  and  so  fully  convinced  were  the  enemy 
of  our  determination  to  fall  back,  if  at  all,  down 
the  Shenandoah,  that  it  was  not  until  the  morning 
of  the  20th — as  our  rear-guard  were  repassing 
through  Liberty — that  their  cavalry  and  mounted 
infantry  came  up  in  sufficient  force  to  make  us 
halt.  General  Averell  held  them,  with  his  and 
Duffie's  cavalry  divisions,  as  long  as  possible ; 
but  finally  Crook's  infantry  had  to  be  sent  back  to 
his  support — the  carbines  of  the  cavalry  being  of 
but  little  use  against  the  long-range  muskets  of 
Early's  mounted  infantry,  of  course  dismounted  for 
action.  At  this  time,  taking  our  whole  little  army 
through,  we  had  left  but  twelve  rounds  of  car 
tridges  per  man,  while  at  least  one  of  the  cavalry 
brigades  was  entirely  out  of  ammunition  ;  and  as 
we  had  no  means  of  judging  how  long,  or  in  what 
force,  the  enemy  would  hang  around  our  skirts  to 
16 


362  RECOLLECTIONS   OF  THE  WAR. 

harass  us,  the  prospects  were  not  encouraging. 
All  efforts  were  now  directed  to  making  our  lads 
reserve  their  fire  as  long  as  possible,  so  that  not 
a  cartridge  might  be  wasted;  and  whenever  a 
man  fell,  either  killed  or  wounded,  there  would 
be  a  dozen  squabbling  over  him  in  a  moment  for 
the  precious  contents  of  the  cartridge-box  which 
he  could  use  no  more. 

That  night  we  crossed  the  Alleghanies  through 
Buford's  Gap,  and  halted  within  some  seven  or 
eight  miles  of  Salem,  after  a  march  of  twenty- 
seven  miles — some  few  dozen  men  and  many  hun 
dreds  of  the  horses  giving  out ;  but  the  spirits  of 
the  army,  as  a  whole,  being  much  better  than 
might  have  been  expected,  when  our  destitute 
condition  was  considered,  the  mountainous  and 
utterly  sterile  character  of  the  country  which  yet 
lay  before  us,  and  the  incessant  heavy  skirmishing, 
both  by  night  and  day,  which  the  enemy — as  if  to 
harass  us  and  drive  away  all  sleep — kept  up 
around  our  rear  and  flanks.  At  Salem  we  saw 
the  debris  and  railroad  ruins  of  Averell's  famous 
raid  made  during  the  preceding  January,  in  which 
he  "  rode,  slid,  climbed,  and  swam"  seven  hundred 
miles  in  an  incredibly  brief  number  of  days — how 
many,  or  rather  how  few,  we  forget ;  but  such  is 
fame.  That  expedition,  we  may  here  remark, 
used  up  a  great  many  hundred  men,  chiefly  frost 
bitten,  and  many  thousand  horses — indeed  pretty 


RECOLLECTIONS    OF   THE  WAR.  363 

nearly  every  horse  that  was  engaged  in  it ;  while 
its  results — only  such  injury  as  cavalry  could  in 
flict  on  a  railroad  track  in  a  few  hours — were  not, 
perhaps,  in  any  substantial  degree  commensurate 
with  its  enormous  cost ;  nor  had  it  any  military 
value  otherwise  than  as  a  proof  of  what  our 
Northern  men  could  endure  and  yet  survive. 

The  day  following  came  rumors  of  the  enemy 
at  Fincastle  in  great  force,  threatening  our  right 
flank,  and,  indeed,  to  cut  off  our  retreat  altoge 
ther—a  rumor  rather  supported  by  the  increasing 
severity  of  the  skirmishing — which  soon  amount 
ed  to  quite  a  skirmish  as  we  neared  Newcastle, 
where  some  supplies  were  found;  but  only  a 
mouthful,  so  to  speak,  for  an  army  already  begin 
ning  to  starve.  It  was  just  beyond  Newcastle, 
and  while  crossing  Craig's  mountain. — a  portion 
of  the  Catawba  range — that  we  lost,  though  the 
enemy  did  not  gain,  six  pieces  of  artillery  belong 
ing  to  Sullivan's  division ;  and  as  this  matter  has 
been  much  discussed,  and  almost  invariably  mis 
represented,  we  may  as  well  here  set  the  story  at 
rest  as  allow  it  to  travel  further. 


364  RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE   WAR. 


HUNTER'S   ONLY  DISASTER. — six  OF  HIS  GUNS 

DESTROYED. 

Our  march  was  over  wild,  waterless,  and  abrupt 
mountains — forest-clad  precipices  yawning  beneath 
us  on  either  side  of  the  road,  while  forest-covered 
mountains  towered  thousands  of  feet  above  us  on 
the  other.  All  the  soft  and  beautiful  characteris 
tics  of  the  Blue  Kidge  were  missing  here.  The 
valleys  were  rocky,  sterile,  scrubby,  and  repulsive, 
and  water  could  only  be  found  in  some  of  the 
largest  creeks  in  the  deepest  ravines ;  whereas  on 
the  Blue  Eidge  clear  springs  gushed  forth  in  cool 
and  crystal  abundance  from  beneath  every  jutting 
stone  almost  to  the  highest  peaks  of  the  moun 
tains.  But  few  tracts  of  reclaimed  land  could 
anywhere  be  seen  except  in  the  Catawba  valley. 
The  few  houses  along  our  line  were  for  the  most 
part  deserted  and  in  ruins — three  years  of  inces 
sant  military  operations,  and  guerilla  and  bush 
whacking  fighting,  having  apparently  convinced 
the  inhabitants  that  "green  fields  and  pastures 
new"  in  some  other  region  had  become  a  necessity. 

With  the  heavy  skirmish  or  engagement  near 
Newcastle,  we  appeared  to  have  shaken  off  the 
greater  part  of  the  enemy's  pursuing  force,  but 
flying  squadrons  or  columns  of  their  cavalry  still 
appeared  at  intervals;  and  General  Durne,  who 
led  the  advance,  was  ordered  to  strongly  picket 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE   WAR.  365 

all  side-roads  and  bridle-paths  leading  in  upon  our 
main  line  of  march.  This  duty  in  one  instance  he 
neglected ;  and  the  result  was  that  the  enemy, 
who  could  see  all  our  movements  from  the  sur 
rounding  hills,  suddenly  sent  in  a  picked  force  o.f 
about  two  hundred  mounted  men,  upon  an  un 
guarded  side-road,  to  attack  the  artillery  of 
Sullivan's  division — said  artillery  having,  by  a 
blunder,  got  mixed  up  with  the  wagon-train.  Of 
these  mounted  men,  about  fifty  carried  hatchets, 
with  which  they  hacked  the  wheels  of  about  ten 
pieces  of  the  artillery  train  of  our  first  division. 
While  they  were  at  work,  however,  a  section  of 
Captain  Du  Font's  regular  battery  wheeled  into 
position  and  sent  grape  and  spherical  case  through 
the  bodies  of  over  thirty  of  them.  Col.  Schoon- 
maker's  brigade  of  General  AverelPs  division  also 
arrived  quickly  on  the  scene  from  the  rear,  which 
Averell  was  guarding ;  and  of  the  two  hundred 
picked  men  who  formed  the  attacking  force,  it  is 
questionable  if  over  seventy  got  back  to  their 
camp.  Four  of  the  ten  injured  guns  were  imme 
diately  remounted  on  the  spare  wheels  of  the  ba 
lance  of  the  artillery  ;  and  the  six  guns  that  could 
not  be  toted  away  were  so  effectually  destroyed 
as  to  remain  mere  lumber  on  the  road,  of  no 
possible  future  use  in  warfare. 

This  disaster,    so  much  paraded    and    prated 
about,  formed  the  sole  injury  of  materiel  inflicted 


366  RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR. 

by  the  enemy  upon  Hunter's  command  during  the 
expedition.  They  never  captured  one  of  our 
wagons  or  ambulances,  though  we  had  to  burn  or 
destroy  greater  part  of  both  on  our  return,  in  con 
sequence  of  the  horses  that  should  draw  them 
dying  off  for  want  of  forage.  They  never  broke 
our  lines  in  any  engagement,  save  the  brief  disor 
der  on  our  left  in  the  second  day's  struggle  before 
Lynchburgh ;  and  they  never  took  a  prisoner 
from  us,  except  those  of  the  Ohio  men  who  got 
over  their  works  and  could  not  get  back ;  and 
some  wounded,  sick,  and  starving  stragglers  who 
fell  to  the  rear — in  considerable  numbers,  it  must 
be  confessed — during  the  terrible  marches  of  the 
next  half-dozen  days.  What  we  lost  of  materiel, 
however,  they  did  not  gain.  Even  the  saddles 
were  taken  off  the  dying  cavalry  horses — dying 
now  by  many  hundreds  daily — and  either  thrown 
into  the  empty  commissary  and  quartermasters' 
wagons  and  brought  along,  or  burned  in  con 
venient  piles.  None  of  the  men  threw  away 
their  arms.  Nothing  could  be  more  admirable 
than  their  conduct ;  and  nothing  but  the  pinched 
faces  of  those  who  were  continually  falling  out  of 
line  and  to  the  rear,  told  the  story  of  their  hunger 
and  weakness,  for  there  was  no  grumbling  save  in 
the  headquarters  of  one  conspicuously  grumbling 
brigadier ;  and  even  he  too  good,  brave,  and  care 
ful  a  soldier  in  other  respects  to  be  censured  by 


RECOLLECTIONS   OF   THE   WAR.  367 

name  even  for  this.     But  he  was  "an  almighty 
grumbler." 

CROSSING     THE      ALLEGHANIES. — TERRIBLE     SUF 
FERINGS  FROM  HUNGER. 

Beautiful,  indeed,  in  its  wild  and  forest-covered 
sublimity  and  ruggedness  was  the  country  through 
which  we  were  now  passing,  had  any  of  us  been 
in  the  mood  to  enjoy  such  scenery.  ISTone  of  us 
were,  however — at  least  not  much ;  for  some 
pounded  corn,  with  a  rasher  of  bacon  or  an  onion, 
formed  a  feast  only  too  rarely  attainable  even  by 
the  highest  officers ;  while  day  by  day  the  few  cat 
tle  we  had  driven  along  ahead  of  each  division 
began  to  fail,  and  there  was  literally  no  food — no 
cattle,  sheep,  hogs,  or  corn — in  the  ever-rising, 
ever-falling  wilderness  of  mountains  through 
which  our  diminishing  column  trailed  its  weary 
length  like  a  wounded,  all  but  dying,  serpent. 
Each  mountain-ridge  that  had  risen  before  us 
seemed  of  interminable  height ;  but  to  be — thank 
Heaven! — the  last  we  should  have  to  climb. 
"  Meadow  Bluffs"  was  the  cry  and  thought  in 
every  heart.  "  Meadow  Bluffs "  where,  as  was 
reported,  there  were  a  million  rations  left  by  Crook 
and  Averell  only  some  fifteen  or  twenty  days  be 
fore  under  charge  of  a  battalion  of  the  Ohio  One 
Hundred  Days'  Militia.  "  Never  mind,  boys ! 
bear  up  as  well  as  you  can.  Only  three  more — 


368  RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR. 

only  two  more — only  one  more  day's  march  to 
Meadow  Bluffs,  and  then — a  million  rations  !" 

Ah,  how  the  hunger-pinched  faces  brightened 
up  at  those  glad  but  deceptive  words !  How  the 
struggling  men  bent  their  breasts  against  the  next 
hill,  scorning  to  throw  away  the  burden  of  arms 
or  knapsacks — yea,  even  the  burdens  of  useless 
relics  or  plunder  which  some  of  them  had  picked 
up  along  their  line  of  march.  We  found  one 
company,  sharp-set  by  the  pangs  of  hunger  and 
half  dead  from  fatigue,  but  carrying  along  with  it 
a  wooden-bedded  billiard  table  which  the  boys 
thought  would  be  "a  nice  thing  to  have  in  the 
house"  if  they  ever  got  back  to  any  Christian 
camp.  "Hang  me,"  said  Captain  Towne,  our 
chief  signal  officer,  "  hang  me,  if  I  don't  expect 
to  see  my  rascals  carrying  a  privy  along  with  them, 
plank  by  plank,  in  hopes  of  setting  it  up  for  gene 
ral  delectation  when  they  reach  Meadow  Bluffs  1" 
It  was  the  grotesqueness  of  the  thought,  perhaps, 
which  impressed  this  sentence,  as  one  irresistibly 
ludicrous,  on  a  memory  from  which  many  brighter 
and  better  things  have  faded. 

But  mountain  still  towered  above  mountain, 
each  apparently  taller  than  the  last ;  and  from  the 
top  of  each  as  we  gained  it,  our  saddened  and 
sickening  eyes  dropped  down  into  the  deep  gulfs 
of  valleys,  beyond  which  towered  mountain-walls 
apparently  blacker,  steeper,  loftier,  more  sterile 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR.  369 

and  waterless  than  any  we  had  yet  traversed. 
The  limited  diet  of  mere  fresh  beef,  too,  without 
salt,  corn,  biscuit,  or  vegetables  of  any  kind,  be 
gan  to  revolt  the  stomachs  of  the  weary  men,  and 
cases  of  aggravated  diarrhoea  soon  became  an  epi 
demic.  Still,  as  a  whole,  the  men  bore  up  won 
derfully,  such  of  the  infantry  as  were  not  actually 
sickened  growing  more  rugged,  sinewy,  bronzed, 
and  soldierlike — confident  that  their  sufferings 
were  not  in  vain;  that  they  had  inflicted  far 
greater  loss  on  the  enemy  than  paid  for  all  they 
were  enduring;  that  Grant  would  not  overlook 
the  help  their  division  had  given  to  his  main  ope 
rations — as  he  did  not ;  and  that  in  a  few  days 
more— a  few  miles  more — -there  would  be  plenty 
for  all  of  them,  and  a  fortnight's — perhaps  a 
month's — rest  in  well-provisioned  camps  before 
any  renewed  assumption  of  the  war-path. 

SWEET  SPRINGS  AND  THE  WHITE  SULPHUR. — 
SOUTHERN  WATERING  PLACES  DURING  THE 
WAR. 

At  length,  on  the  24th,  we  reached  Sweet 
Springs — that  loveliest  watering-place  of  the  in 
land,  and  with  the  sweetest  water ;  and  on  the 
day  following,  after  a  long  and  tedious  march  over 
hills  apparently  interminable  and  through  forests 
of  the  densest  shade,  we  descended  into  the  little 
valley  of  the  White  Sulphur  Springs,  where  at 
16* 


370  RECOLLECTIONS   OF  THE   WAR. 

least  and  at  last  our  horses  were  able  to  enjoy  one 
day's  good  grazing.  A  glorious  place  the  White 
Sulphur  must  have  been — will  be  again — in  days 
of  peace,  despite  the  sickening  stench  of  its  yet 
pure  and  wholesome  waters.  Surrounded  by  vast 
hills  bearing  the  finest  and  largest  timber  conceiv 
able,  the  nestling  valley  lies  like  an  emerald  bot 
tom  to  a  great  bowl  of  green  and  purple  porphyry. 
Here  were  immense  hotels  of  red  brick  and  white 
stucco-work,  with  terraces  and  rows  of  tributary 
Italian  and  Swiss  villas  farmed  out  to  separate  fami 
lies,  but  all  depending  on  the  now  empty  hotels 
for  such  proud  and  joyous  life  as  they  contained 
in  the  happy  days  gone  by.  As  to  the  waters — 
the  main  well  was  pellucid  and  pure,  but  emitted 
such  an  odor  of  sulphuretted  hydrogen,  as  if  a 
thousand  baskets  of  the  rottenest  eggs  or  worst- 
decayed  mackerel  ever  known  lay  festering  at  its 
bottom.  The  hotels  had  been  closed  and  deserted 
from  the  commencement  of  the  war — the  largest 
one,  able  to  accommodate  with  its  sub-buildings 
over  one  thousand  guests,  standing  open,  but 
not  inviting,  as  our  soldiers  crowded  and  shouted 
through  its  deserted  rooms  and  corridors.  The 
mirrors  remained  on  the  walls,  as  useless  and  not 
portable  lumber.  So  the  iron  bedsteads  and  beds, 
pitchers  and  basins,  remained  in  the  multitudinous 
rooms ;  but  the  carpets  and  curtains  had  been 
long  since  cut  up  to  furnish  clothing  or  bedding 


KECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAK.  371 

to  the  rebel  troops,  and  the  furniture  had  either 
been  carried  away  or  burned.  Alas !  there  was 
nothing  to  eat  in  the  vast  dining-room,  once  so 
hospitable;  and  the  scene,  perhaps,  appeared  to 
the  writer  all  the  sadder  for  the  reason  that  it  was 
witnessed  in  company  with  "  Porte  Crayon,"  who 
never  wearied  of  relating  droll  and  varied  anec 
dotes  of  its  former  greatness  and  splendor  before 
the  "chivalry"  had  determined  that  Southern 
rights  must  be  achieved  by  war. 

At  Sweet  Springs,  the  White  Sulphur,  and  the 
Red  Springs — all  tenantless,  all  deserted — a  con 
trast  with  our  own  Newport,  Saratoga,  and  Cape 
May,  not  favorable  to  the  men,  nor  eke  the  ladies 
of  the  North,  was  forced  on  the  attention.  These 
resorts  had  been  abandoned  from  the  first  day 
of  the  war — as  much  abandoned  in  1861  and  1862, 
when  the  South  was  practically  triumphant  and 
the  North  covered  with  disgrace  and  threatened 
with  defeat,  as  in  1863  and  1864,  when  the  tide 
began  visibly  turning.  Was  this  so  at  Newport, 
Cape  May,  Saratoga,  Lake  George  ?  Did  not  the 
women  of  the  South  give  more  help,  more  sym 
pathy,  more  passionate  devotion,  more  self-sacri 
ficing  denial  and  heroism  to  their  side  of  the  strug 
gle  than  did  our  colder  Northern  dames  ?  How 
often  have  we  been  told  in  various  parts  of  the 
South,  when  asking  some  lady  at  whose  house  we 
had  made  headquarters,  to  sing  :  "  You  would  not 


372  RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR. 

like  my  songs.  Since  the  war,  we  Southern  wo 
men  have  sung  only  the  songs  of  our  country ;" 
and  then,  when  assured  that  those,  of  all  others, 
were  the  songs  we  most  wished  to  hear — with 
what  dazzling  passion — almost  frenzy — of  voice, 
eye,  swelling  figure,  and  gesture,  as  of  an  inspired 
Pythoness,  would  be  sent  shrilling  forth  "  Stone 
wall  Jackson's  Way,"  "  The  Bonnie  Blue  Flag," 
"  On  to  Kichmond,"  or  that  noblest  lyric  of  the 
war,  "  Maryland  !  my  Maryland  1" 

Indeed  the  women  of  the  South  were  the  back 
bone — the  life  and  soul  of  the  rebellion.  They 
made  it  disgraceful  for  any  able-bodied  man  to 
remain  out  of  the  ranks.  All  members  of  the 
Home  Guard  Brigade  were  presented  with  bon 
nets,  fans,  petticoats,  and  rouge-boxes,  by  commit 
tees  of  patriotic  belles.  They  wore  no  foreign 
goods,  nor  coveted  any,  throwing  away  their  silks 
at  the  beginning  of  the  contest,  and  writing 
"  Shoddy"  on  the  brows  of  all  their  sex  who  were 
too  lazy  to  make  homespun  cloth,  or  too  proud  to 
wear  it.  Even  hoops  were  discarded  from  an 
early  date,  and  their  jewel-ornaments  were  melted 
down  in  local  treasuries  for  the  equipment  of 
volunteers.  That  our  Northern  women  might  not 
have  done  as  well  and  as  bravely,  had  we  been 
the  invaded  side,  the  writer  has  no  disposition 
either  to  question  or  assert.  He  only  avers  that 
they  did  not ;  and  that  few  of  them — save  when 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR.  373 

actually  compelled  by  the  absence  of  their  male 
supporters  in  the  ill-paid  ranks  of  the  army — 
made  any  voluntary,  or  even  visible,  reduction  in 
their  expenditures  or  style  of  living.  "  Madam," 
we  once  heard  Major  Sam  Stockton  say,  with  a 
graceful  and  well-turned  compliment,  to  a  beauti 
ful  young  rebel  girl  who  had  just  finished  an  ex 
quisitely  rendered  but  very  furious  song  against 
the  "Yankee  Invader,"  and  then  asked  him,  as 
she  rose  with  flushed  cheeks  from  the  piano,  what 
he  thought  of  it — "  Madam,  I  think,"  said  Sam, 
"that  if  we  had  only  had  a  few  such  ladies  as 
yourself  in  the  North,  we  would  have  driven 
all  your  armies  into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  before  the 
second  year  of  this  distressing  war." 

And  now  to  return  to  our  muttons — or  rather 
to  our  army  which  had  neither  mutton  nor  bread. 

NO  FOOD  AT  MEADOW  BLUFFS. — GEN.  GRANT'S 
REBELLIOUS  AUNT. 

But  why  enter  in  detail  upon  the  sufferings  of 
our  further  march  across  the  Greenbrier  river, 
through  Lewisburgh,  where  we  found  some  food 
in  a  few  stores,  and  past  Bunger's  Mill,  where  also 
was  a  little  corn-meal.  We  had  a  sickening  dis 
appointment  at  Meadow  Bluffs,  from  which  the 
stores  had  been  removed — partly  back  to  Loup's 
Creek  on  the  Kanawha,  and  partly  had  been 
burned  by  the  militia  battalion  left  to  guard  them, 


374  RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE   WAR. 

under  some  sudden  stampede  created  by  a  hun 
dred  or  so  of  mounted  bushwhackers  appearing 
in  the  vicinity.  At  the  Bluffs,  however,  we  got 
some  score  or  two  of  sheep  and  a  few  hogs,  the 
country  now  growing  more  level,  and  with  more 
numerous  signs  (partly  in  the  deserted  fortifica 
tions  thrown  up  by  General  Henry  A.  Wise)  of 
having  once  been  inhabited. 

It  was  a  tough  ride  and  march  across  the  last 
high  spurs  of  the  Alleghanies  that  brought  us  to 
Meadow  Bluffs ;  but  on  the  next  day — June  26, 
1864 — a  march  of  nearly  thirty  miles  brought  us 
to  the  house  of  "  the  widow  Jones,"  who  is  an  aunt 
to  General  Grant,  and  was  then — we  fervently 
hope  still  is — a  remarkably  bright,  hospitable,  and 
kindly  old  body,  though  excessively  rebellious;  at 
whose  well-furnished  table  for  the  first  time  in 
many  weeks  our  nearly  famishing  party  sat  down 
to  a  meal  having  no  stint  of  scarcity ;  and  with 
such  gorgeous  accompaniments  as  iron  forks,  a 
table-cloth,  sweet  milk  in  glasses,  and  tea — actual 
tea — in  cups,  as  made  our  recent  existence  seem 
only  a  preparative  whetting  of  our  appetites  to  this 
banquet  of  the  immortal  gods  ! 

Next  morning  Generals  Hunter  and  Crook, 
with  an  escort  of  such  staff  officers  and  mounted 
men  as  still  had  horses  and  could  keep  up,  crossed 
the  Big  and  Little  Sewell  mountains — Hunter 
being  specially  anxious  to  meet  and  hurry  for- 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR.  375 

ward  the  supply-trains  previously  ordered  up  from 
Gauley  Bridge,  or  rather  Loup  Creek,  which  was 
our  then  base  of  supplies  in  the  Kanawha,  being 
close  to  the  head  of  navigation  on  that  river. 
Half  way  on  the  road  we  met  the  first  of  these 
trains,  lumbering  along  under  a  guard  of  some 
Ohio  militia — a  train  with  20,000  rations;  and 
closely  followed  by  another  larger  one  with  75,000 
rations  more  1  Better  and  better !  we  learn  that 
there  are  a  million  rations  and  12,000  new  and 
complete  sets  of  uniforms  and  equipments — for 
our  entire  command  was  shoeless  and  in  rags — 
only  ten  miles  ahead  of  us,  at  Loup  Creek ;  and 
here— at  the  Hawk's  Nest,  looking  down  into  the 
loveliest  and  most  perfect  triangle  of  scenery  our 
eyes  ever  rested  upon,  and  with  the  wild  shouts 
of  our  poor  boys,  some  miles  yet  in  the  rear,  as 
they  meet  the  first  train  and  empty  its  contents 
into  their  stomachs,  this  narrative  may  most 
rightly  and  welcomely  be  brought  to  its  conclusion. 
Here  ended  Hunter's  campaign  of  the  Shenandoah 
proper — the  movement  of  his  troops  down  the 
Kanawha  to  Charleston,  and  from  thence  up  the 
Ohio  to  Parkersburgh,  where  we  first  heard  of 
Early's  invasion  of  Maryland,  and  from  thence  to 
Harper's  Ferry  and  Maryland,  forming  a  distinct 
episode  or  branch  of  history. 


376  RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR. 


ROMANCE    OF    THE    WAR  IN  THE  SHENANDOAH.— 
END    OF   THE    RAID   AT   THE    HAWK'S    NEST. 

In  conclusion,  let  us  say  that  this  narrative  has 
grown  upon  our  hands  into  far  larger  proportions 
than  we  either  expected  or  have  wished ;  and  yet 
we  have  condensed  and  suppressed  everything 
that  appeared  in  anywise  compressible  or  suppress- 
ible  with  due  deference  to  truth  and  maintaining 
the  interest  of  our  readers.  In  our  pocket-book — 
a  very  poorly-kept  diary,  briefly  scribbled  in  the 
scanty  moments  of  leisure  that  duty  did  not  occu 
py — there  are  many  passages  of  but  a  few  lines 
that  might  well  be  expanded,  with  their  surround 
ing  circumstances,  into  chapters  of  absorbing  and 
instructive  interest.  It  is  in  the  beautiful  but 
bushwhacking,  inviting  but  treacherous,  moun 
tain-girdled  but  yet  most  insecure  valleys  of  the 
Shenandoah  and  Kanawha,  that  the  romance 
writers  of  the  war  will  hereafter  find  their  most 
fitting  ground  and  appropriate  traditions  and  in 
spirations.  Great  armies  like  that  of  the  Potomac, 
are  monstrous  hives  of  men,  needing  infinite  quan 
tities  of  pork  and  beans,  wearing  out  infinite 
stacks  of  quartermasters'  clothing,  and  covering  an 
immeasurable  space  of  country.  They  have,  how 
ever,  but  few  individual  adventures,  but  few  rapid 
transitions  from  scene  to  scene ;  and  the  men  who 
composed  them  were  brought  but  little  into  con- 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAK.  377 

tact  with  any  of  the  Southern  people  residing  on 
their  own  farms,  as  they  lived  before  the  war. 
In  the  Shenandoah  and  Kanawha  valleys,  on  the 
contrary,  every  movement  had  the  swift  vibrations 
of  a  shaken  kaleidoscope ;  forays,  surprises,  and 
feats  of  individual  prowess  or  adventure  were  the 
order  of  the  day ;  and  love-making  in  the  towns 
through  which  our  banners  and  those  of  the 
rebels  fluctuated  in  alternate  waves,  was  a  regular 
business  with  the  soldiers  on  both  sides — in  which, 
truth  to  say,  both  seemed  to  become  most  perfect 
proficients  under  the  tutelage  of  such  able  and 
charming  mistresses  as  those  valleys  yield. 

In  another  page  of  these  Eecollections,  but  not 
as  a  continuation  of  the  Valley  Raid,  we  shall 
describe  the  country  from  Gauley  Bridge  to  Par- 
kersburgh — the  great  oil,  salt,  and  coal  producing 
region  of  West  Virginia  and  Ohio — in  which  Gen. 
Averell,  Colonel  Yance,  the  writer,  and  many 
others  who  took  part  in  the  expedition  we  have 
just  described,  now  hold  landed  interests  very 
large,  and — as  the  writer  fondly  hopes — yet  to 
become  very  lucrative.  In  this  connexion,  too, 
will  come  in  the  history  of  the  transfer  of  Hunter's 
command  from  Parkersburgh  back  to  Harper's 
Ferry,  to  resist,  or  try  to  capture  General  Early's 
column  of  invasion — the  last  rebel  forces  ever 
seen  on  Maryland  soil ;  together  with  secret  dis 
patches  from  General  Hunter,  President  Lincoln, 


378  RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WAR. 

General  Grant,  Secretary  Stan  ton,  and  General 
Halleck,  throwing  much  light  over  that  still  mys 
terious  episode  in  our  more  recent  history,  and 
none  of  which  have  ever  yet  been  published. 
Meanwhile  let  us  conclude  by  advising  all  lovers 
of  the  picturesque,  while  there  is  yet  time  this 
Fall,  and  while  the  forests  wear  their  richest  and 
most  varied  verdure,  to  hasten  up  the  Kanawha 
to  the  Hawk's  Nest,  where  the  last  pages  of  this 
hurried  and  imperfect,  but  honest  history  may  be 
supposed  to  be  written.  Here,  outlying  on  a  vast 
ledge  of  rock,  they  will  look  down  over  a  sheer 
descent  of  fifteen  hundred  feet — the  rock-base  on 
which  they  rest  forming  the  apex  of  a  right-angled 
triangle,  the  sides  of  which  are  sharp  precipitous 
mountains  covered  from  ridge  to  foot  with  all  the 
foliage  of  the  forest,  and  with  the  dark,  wild  foam 
ing  waters  of  the  ISTew  River  or  Green  River,  as 
it  is  variously  styled,  plunging  on  in  mad  and 
roaring  race  beneath  them — the  mountain-echoes 
multiplying  and  thunder-toning  all  the  dialings 
and  many- voiced  leaps  of  the  imprisoned  stream, 
and  the  overhanging  mountains  for  ever  gloriously 
mirrored  in  the  deep,  swift,  and  narrow  channel 
through  which — striking  against  the  foot  of  the 
Hawk's  Nest,  and  then  glancing  sharply  off — this 
impetuous  river  rushes  to  join  the  Gauley,  a  few 
miles  further  down;  these  united  streams  there 
after  forming  the  bright  Kanawha. 


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portrait  of  Miss  Fox.      izmo.  cloth.         .          .          $1-75 

F.  1>.  Ouerrazzi. 

BEATRICE  CENCL—  The  great  historical  novel.  Translated  from 
the  Italian;  with  a  portrait  of  the  Cenci,  from  Guide's 
famous  picture  in  Rome.  .  .  izmo.  cloth,  $1.75 

Private  Miles  O'Relllj. 
HIS  BOOK.—  Comic  songs,  speeches,  etc.        izmo.  cloth,  $1.50 

A  NEW  BOOK.-  .    .  .  .  .  do.  $1-75 

15<v,'.  John  Camming,  D.D-,  of  London. 

THE  GREAT  TRrBULATION.-TwO  Series.  1  2H1O.   cloth,  $1.50 

THE  GREAT  PREPARATION.-        do.  .  do.  $1.50 

TIIE  GREAT  CONSUMMATION.-    do.  .  do.  $1   $0 


BY  GEO.   W.  GARLETON,  NEW  YORK. 


Gomery  of  Montgomery. 

A  striking  new  novel.        One  thick  vol.,  izmo.  cloth,  $2.00 

ITI.  A.  Fisher. 
A  SPINSTER'S  STORY.-A  novel.  izmo.  cloth,  $1.75 

Novels  by  RuffinL 

DR.  ANTONIO.-A  love  story  of  Italy.  I2mo.  cloth,  81.75 

LAVINLA;  OR,  THE  ITALIAN  ARTIST.-  do.         $1.75 

VINCENZO;    OR,  SUNKEN  ROCKS.-  8vO.   cloth,  81.75 

Mother  Goose  for  Grown  Folks. 

HUMOROUS  RHYMES  for  grown  people ;  based  upon  the  famous 
"Mother  Goose  Melodies."  .       *.        I2mo.  cloth,  81.25 
The  New  York  Central  Park. 

A  SUPERB  GIFT  BOOK.-The  Central  Park  pleasantly  described, 
and  magnificently  embellished  with  more  than  50  exquisite 
photographs  of  the  principal  views  and  objects  of  interest. 
A  large  quarto  volume,  sumptuously  bound  in  Turkey 
morocco.  An  elegant  Presentation  Book.  830.00 

M.  T.  Walworth. 

LULU.-A  new  novel.        .         .  I2mo.  cloth,  81.50 

HOTSPUR.—     do.  .  do.         $1.50 

Author  of  "  Olie." 

NEPENTHE.— A  new  novel.         .         .          I2mo.  cloth,  81.50 

TOGETHER.-  do.  .  .  do.  8 1.50 

N.  H.  Chamberlain. 

THE  AUTOBIOGRAPHY  OP  A  NEW  ENGLAND  FARM-HOUSE.-8l.75 

Amelia  B.  Edwards. 

BALLAD8.-By  author  of  "  Barbara's  History."  81.50 

S.  M.  Johnson. 
FREE  GOVERNMENT  IN  ENGLAND  AND  AMERICA.-8vO.  cl.  83.00 

Captain  Semmea. 

CRUISE  OF  THE  ALABAMA  AND  8UMTER.-         I  2mO.  do.,  82.OO 

Hewes  Gordon. 

LOVERS  AND  THINKERS.-A  new  novel.      .         .         .     81.50 

Caroline  May. 

POEMS.-Printed  on  tinted  paper.  I2mo.  cloth,  81.50 

James  II.  Hackett. 

NOTES  AND  COMMENTS  ON  SHAKSPEARE.-    1  2mO.  cloth,  81.50 

Stephen   Mas  sett. 

DEIITINQ  ABOUT,-Comic  book,  illustrated.  I2mo.  cloth,  81.50 


8     LIST  OF  BOOKS  PUBLISHED  BY  CARLETON,  NEW  YORZ. 

Miscellaneous  Work*. 

VICTOIRE.— A  new  novel.  .  .  .  i2mo.  cloth,  $1.75 
QUEST.—  do.  .  .  .  do.  $1.50 

POEMS.-By  Mrs.  Sarah  T.  Bolton.         .  do.       $1.50 

THE  MORGESONS.-A  novel  by  Mrs.  Stoddard.       do.       $1  50 

THE  SUPPRESSED  BOOK  ABOUT  SLAVERY.-  do.          $2.OO 

JOHN  GUILDEESTRING'S  SIN.— A  novel.  .  izmo.  cloth,  $1.50 
CENTEOLA.— By  author  "  Green  Mountain  Boys."  do.  $1.50 

BED  TAPE  AND  PIGEON-HOLE  GENERALS.—   .  do.         $1.50 

THE  PARTISAN  LEADER.— By  Beverly  Tucker.  do.  $1.50 
TREATISE  ON  DEAFNESS.— By  Dr.  E.  B.  Lighthill.  do.  $1.50 
THE  PRISONER  OF  STATE.— By  D.  A.  Mahoney.  do.  $1.50 
AROUND  THE  PYRAMIDS.— By  Gen.  Aaron  Ward.  do.  $1.50 

CHINA  AND  THE  CHINESE.— By  W.  L.  G.  Smith,    do.         $1.50 

THE  WINTHROPS.— A  novel  by  J.  R.  Beckwith.  do.  $1.75 
SPREES  AND  SPLASHES.— By  Henry  Morford.  do.  $1.50 
GARRET  VAN  HORN.— A  novel  by  J.  S.  Sauzade.  do.  $1.50 

SCHOOL  FOR  THE  SOLDIER.— By  Capt.  Van  Ness.  do.  50  cts. 

THE  YACHTMAN'S  PRIMER.— By  T.  R.  Warren,  do.  50  cts. 
EDGAR  POE  AND  His  CRITICS.— By  Mrs.  Whitman,  do.  $1.00 
ERIC;  OR,  LITTLE  BY  LITTLE.— By  F.  W.  Farrar.  do.  $1.50 
SAINT  wiNiFRED'S.-By  the  author  of  "Eric"  do.  $1.50 

A  W  OMAN'S  THOUGHTS  ABOUT  WOMEN.—       .  do.         $1.50 

MARRIED  OFF.— Illustrated  satirical  poem.     .         do.  50  cts, 

SCHOOL-DAYS  OF  EMINENT  MEN.— By  Timbs.  do.         $1.50 

ROMANCE  OF  A  POOR  YOUNG  MAN.—   .  .  do.         $1.50 

THE  FLYING  DUTCHMAN.— J.  G.  Saxe,  illustrated,  do.  75  cts. 
ALEXANDER  VON  HUMBOLDT.— Life  and  travels,  do.  $1.50 
,  LIFE  OF  HUGH  MILLER— The  celebrated  geologist,  do.  $1.50 
TACTICS  ;  or,  Cupid  in  Shoulder-Straps.  .  do.  $1.50 
DEBT  AND  GRACE.— By  Rev.  C.  F.  Hudson.  do.  $1.75 

THE  RUSSIAN  BALL.— Illustrated  satirical  poem.     do.  50  cts 

THE  SNOBLACE  BALL.—    do.  do.       do.  do.  50  Ct5 

TEACH  us  TO  FRAY.-By  Dr.  Gumming.       .         do.      $1.50 

IN  ANSWER  TO  HUGH  MILLER.-By  T.  A.  Davies.  do.         $1.50 

COSMOGONY.-By  Thomas  A.  Davies.  .  8vo.  cloth,  $2.00 
TWENTY  YEARS  around  the  World.  J.  Guy  Vassar.  do.  $3.75 
THE  SLAVE  POWER.— By  J.  E.  Cairnes.  .  .  do.  $2.00 
ituEAL  ABOHlTECTTJRE,-By  M.  Field,  illustrated,  do.  $2.00 


4  days  prior  to  due  date 


2003 


DD20  15M  4-02 


GENERAL  LIBRARY  -U.C.  BERKELEY 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


II 


fl 


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